The Muggle Way
by gnomey2001
Summary: When Voldemort finds a way to trace Harry through his magic, Dumbledore sends him into hiding, to live as a muggle until he reaches the age of magical majority and the trace is removed. Snape, as a discovered spy, accompanies him as does a reluctant Draco Malfoy. Compliant up to the end of GOF. For the purposes of this fic, Snape is a pure-blood wizard. HP/DM
1. Chapter 1

Dumbledore gazed out as the summer sun set on another beautiful day, how could nature be so at odds with the evil that was spreading its way through Wizardom? Riddle was back, the second nemesis he had encountered in his lifetime. Despite his prediction, that Voldemort would indeed return, coming true, he felt unprepared for how to go forward.

The ministry was being corrupted from the inside, like last time, there were mysterious disappearances, like last time and he feared for the lives of those around him, like last time. Unlike last time, there was an end in sight, the prophecy that had catalysed Voldemort's first demise, had come into play. Harry had been marked the Dark Lord's equal, Harry had a power the Dark Lord knew not, however, no matter how optimistic Dumbledore's outlook, he knew, if one wizard was to die at the hand of the other, Harry did not stand a chance of being the one who survived. The events of last term, proved as much.

 _The Final Task, of what had been, by all accounts, a more successful tournament than it had looked at the beginning of the year. Harry was holding his own against his much greater experienced competitors and it looked as if Hogwarts could have its champion. Dumbledore blamed himself for his complacency in blindly allowing the events of that night to unfurl, how had he not suspected something was a foot?_

 _His first sign of trouble was when Fleur was discovered, suffering the effects of a wizard administered curse, he knew none of the other competitors would have sunk so low as to willingly cast that on the girl._

 _Then Krum turned up, with the dazed and troubled countenance of one, recently imperialised. All he could do was wait for the other two competitors to re-emerge._

 _He had been sitting, agitatedly at the front of the expectant crowd, when the man to his right had tensed and hissed in pain._

 _"Severus, what is it?" he whispered,_

 _"the dark lord, it is a summoning, I must go, Potter may be in trouble",_

 _"impossible, he cannot have left the grounds and Voldemort cannot have entered them"._

 _Severus stood up and started making his way back to the castle, Dumbledore followed. At a safe distance away from the stands he stopped the former Death Eater._

 _"You cannot know that, perhaps it would be best if you waited here until the task's completion, it would be folly to answer whilst this ill-informed"_

 _" Albus with all due respect, I know what he is calling for, he is back, sir, he has regained his full strength and you know as well as I do, that he would desire the boy to be there"._

 _Albus pulled out his wand and cast a quick detection spell at the maze and gasped "You are right, Harry has gone, so too has Diggory, I fear something terrible has occurred" he admitted gravely to the other man._

 _"Then I shall make hast and see what can be done" with that Snape sped back towards the castle and into the night._

 _Dumbledore hurried back to the crowd, pacing and cursing how this could have happened beneath his very nose._

 _Three wizards returned to the front of the maze in a tangled and bloodied mess. Someone was sobbing, Harry, Dumbledore noted as he hurried to their sides._

 _"Severus has what we feared transpired?" he got a tense nod in reply._

 _"He's dead, I couldn't stop him, it was so fast" Harry hiccuped and Dumbledore looked down at the other boy. Diggory lay motionless, blank eyes staring up into nothing._

 _"Severus get Harry somewhere safe, I shall take care of this",_

 _Snape went to take Harry by the shoulders but Harry clung on to the body, "No, no, no it's not fair" Harry broke down into heart wrenching sobs bowed over the other boy's body._

 _Mr Diggory had by now pushed his way through the gathering crowd and discovered his son. "No, my boy, that's my boy!"._

 _The distraction was enough for Snape to haul Harry out of there and away._

 _It was later that Dumbledore found Harry, seated in Minerva's office with said professor and Severus standing either side, also a stunned and bound man lying at their feet._

 _" Am I to gather that this man, has something to do with the events of this evening?" Albus enquired._

 _"The man who we believed to be Alistair Moody, accosted me earlier as I brought Potter inside. Potter managed to stun him and we brought him in here, where he recently transformed into this" Snape emphasised 'this' with a kick to the man's ribs._

 _"Ennervate" Dumbledore muttered to the man at his feet "Ah Barty Crouch, Junior, it has been a long time. Tell me, to what end did you mean by impersonating a retired Auror?"_

 _"Why should I tell you anything, old man?" he spat_

 _" I see" Dumbledore sighed "Severus?"_

 _Snape bent forward and poured a clear liquid down the man's throat. Barty coughed and looked around with wild eyes._

 _"Why were you impersonating Alistair Moody?" Dumbledore repeated,_

 _"The Dark Lord bade me bring Potter to him, I had to get into the school to put his name in the goblet of fire" Barty replied in a flat, emotionless voice._

 _"What did Voldemort want with Harry?"_

 _"He did not say, just to make sure the boy was at the graveyard tonight. Wormtail said the Dark Lord had found a way to return"._

 _Dumbledore nodded and looked between Harry and Severus, "I take it, Voldemort was successful?"_

 _Harry glanced at Snape, before replying "Yes, he took my blood and his father's bone and chopped of Pettigrew's hand. Then his new body just grew out of nowhere, it was grotesque" Harry shuddered and McGonagall put her arm around the boy's shoulders._

 _"Is Alistair Moody still alive?" Dumbledore asked of their captive._

 _" He is locked in my trunk, I had to keep him alive for his hair to put in the polyjuice"_

 _"Minerva, if you would escort Harry back to his dormitory, I shall contact the Aurors and see to Alistair… Severus?"_

 _Snape had suddenly gasped and doubled over, holding his left arm against his chest._

 _"Severus?" Minerva and Albus asked at once, "Was your cover broken?" all Snape could do was grimace and nod,_

 _"I'll alert Poppy, I think there is a potion you have need of"._

 _Albus sent off his patronus to the ministry then headed to fire call Poppy._

 _Before Minerva could usher Harry out, the boy had turned to Albus and gestured at Snape, "It was my fault, he had to give himself up to save me, Voldemort was going to kill me" looking down at his groaning professor the boy added "I'm sorry" before he left._

It was one of the longest nights he had had in a long time. Severus had taken his experimental potion and after a night of agony, the mark was gone, Albus couldn't help the pride at the talent of the man he thought of as close to a son.

He returned from his balcony, now that it was dark, and set about with some work he had promised for the Order.

His first alert that something was wrong was Fawkes squawking and swooping down to his desk. He quickly glanced at his ward detector, but nothing seemed amiss with it, hurrying over to his shelf, he found the source of Fawkes' disturbance, one of his monitoring spheres was pulsing an angry orange and began to shriek. Picking the ball up and turning it over, he read the HJP on the base, Harry was in trouble.

He sent his patronus right away, "Arabella, you must get to privet drive, something is wrong" he also sent a note to Grimmauld place with Fawkes, hoping an Order Member was around to get to Harry. He then hurried to the hospital wing to prepare for an imminent arrival.


	2. Chapter 2

Warning for slight violence and child abuse

Harry had given up yelling half an hour ago, the punches kept coming, the belt kept lashing, and the shouting kept assaulting his eardrums. All he could do was curl up in a ball, wrapping his arms around his head, and trying his best to bare the pain. This was the worst beating he had ever received, the worst pain he had ever felt and he'd recently been under the cruciatus. Just as his vision began to swim out of focus and the noises became ever fainter, Harry heard two loud pops from outside. Too close to unconsciousness, Harry couldn't quite take-in what the sound meant.

The next moment, Harry became aware of, was still agony but he could feel the beatings had, at least, stopped. Someone was calling his name, actually it sounded like more than one person.

"Harry hang on, you're going to be okay, I promise, please stay with us". Was that Sirius? Harry fought to open his eyes but his body wasn't quite obeying him.

"Stay back, Black, I need room" Harry knew that deep voice too, but couldn't place it.

Sirius was here and Harry felt safe, he drifted back into unconsciousness. The next few days were hazy for Harry, all he could process were sounds and touches. His whole body throbbed dully and he felt light and floaty, like after drinking a healing draft but notched up several degrees. People would hold his hand and stroke his hair, there were soothing voices too, Sirius he recognised, Remus as well and once or twice a woman, McGonagall? Mrs Weasley?

The first day he woke up feeling more like himself, he found Sirius sitting beside him, face down, snoring into the mattress he was lying on. Harry knew these mattresses, he was at Hogwarts, the hospital wing. Harry shifted his neck around to see more and groaned when he felt shooting pains race down his spine. Sirius sat bolt upright.

"Harry, you're awake, thank Merlin, how're you feeling?".

Harry tried to answer but his throat wouldn't obey, he squeaked out unintelligibly.

"Hang on, I'll get Snape". Snape! Harry thought, what on Earth would his godfather want with Snape?

"Aha felt like returning to the land of the living did you Mr Potter?" somehow Snape's usual sarcasm felt comforting to Harry, here was something that made some sense.

Harry cleared his throat and tried to cough away the obstruction, "What happened?" it still came out a bit squeaky.

"We'll get to that soon" Sirius placated. "How do you feel, are you in any pain?"

"Just achey really and kinda thirsty"

"Of course" Sirius jumped up and, presumably, went to get a drink.

"Where about's are you feeling 'achey'" Snape carried on clinically,

Harry took a moment to examine his body, his head felt a bit heavy and woolly, his neck was stiff and his torso felt bruised. When he tried to move his limbs one by one, he gasped when he flexed his left arm. Harry blinked up questioningly at Snape

"You had a shattered ulna"

Harry had no idea what one of them was but he guessed it meant he had broken his arm, "anything else?" Harry asked drily.

"2 broken ribs, several bruised, severe internal bleeding and a concussion" he answered, equally devoid of emotion.

Harry nodded, "Where's madam Pomfrey?" expecting her to come bustling around the curtains at any moment.

"She took the opportunity of your absence from the castle, to take a well-deserved rest, seems she was mistaken in thinking you could go a whole summer without injury coming to your person".

Harry would have found that amusing if it weren't for the murderous glare Sirius arrived back with. "Don't you dare blame this on Harry you miserable excuse for a man"

Snape glared back but didn't reply.

"Blame what on me?" Harry asked slightly confused, oh did they mean him being beaten up, he supposed this must look shocking to them, they didn't know, with Vernon around, this was a regular occurrence.

"What he did to you Harry, your Uncle" Sirius sounded uncertain "when we got to your house, he was attacking you, you were nearly dead"

Harry was shocked when Sirius sounded close to tears, "Siri, it's okay, I know it looks bad, but I'm fine now"

"You are never going back there Harry, and that man will be made to pay" Sirius promised vehemently "why did you never say anything? if you were being hurt, you could have told someone, we could have protected you".

Harry sighed, he didn't know why, at first he hadn't realised it wasn't normal to be abused by your guardians and then he'd worried no one would believe him, Vernon was always careful not to leave visible marks.

Snape and Sirius were still waiting for him to answer, Harry stalled by sipping the water Sirius had brought, then took a deep breath "I didn't want to be a bother, Dumbledore said I was safe at Privet Drive, that meant I was in danger if I was elsewhere and that meant I'd be a danger to those around me, I couldn't do that to the Weasley's or you Siri"

Sirius smiled sadly, "there would have been something we could have done, how long did this go on for?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably "it wasn't that bad, he never beat me like this before".

Snape snorted in disbelief before bending down and catching Harry's gaze, before he could look away he felt a weird sensation, it felt as if his mind was being opened and rifled through, random memories flickered across his consciousness until one started to play out, a recent one, Harry panicked but couldn't stop it.

 _Dudley was in his room, this in itself was odd, Dudley never came in here, what was more odd was the expression on his face._

 _"What have you done to me?" what? Harry was pretty sure he had not done anything to the teen in front of him "Is it a spell? do you think this is a joke?"_

 _"D, what do you mean? I haven't done anything"_

 _"Don't lie, you think you've been so clever using magic on me, to turn me queer"._

 _Harry was struck dumb by his cousin's words, he thinks I made him gay? Dudley's gay? Oh oh, what's he doing now? Dudley had paced forward and grabbed Harry by the back of the neck with one hand, and the other he used to thrust Harry's face towards his, Harry tried to jerk his head away from his cousin's questing mouth._

 _"Get off, eww!" Harry yelped but Dudley kept adamantly trying to kiss him, "aaaaah" Harry cried in disgust._

 _The door banged open and Vernon thundered inside, "what is the meaning of this, boy?!" he yelled "get off my son, you disgusting freak"_

 _Dudley jumped up, stammering excuses, as Vernon stalked forward and grabbed Harry around the collar, "you couldn't just be an abomination to humankind could you? oh no, you had to be gay as well!" and with that he threw Harry on the floor._

The vision swayed and Harry became aware of the black eyes gazing into his.

"What was that, what were you doing Snivellus?"

"Leave it mutt, I was just ascertaining the truth of Potter's words".

Harry flushed with embarrassment, realising Snape had just seen all of that. How weak must he think he was now? Harry wondered, the man had already risked his life to get him out of that graveyard and now he had seen that Harry couldn't even defend himself against a couple of muggles.

"Satisfied?" Harry asked bitterly,

Snape gazed at him with a curious expression, "no, Potter, I am not" and with that he left.

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	3. Chapter 3

_Harry was encircled, figures in robes and ghoulish masks surrounded him, at the front was the hideous specter of a man._

 _"Bow to me Potter, before you dual you must bow" Voldemort commanded once again, Harry refused "Imperio"._

 _He forced all of his might into remaining upright and couldn't help a sardonic smirk when Voldemort failed and dropped his curse._

 _"Very impressive boy, but you will not best me in a dual with stubbornness, it is time to fight"._

 _Harry shakily raised his wand, and when the first Avada Kadavra flew his way, Harry rolled away behind a gravestone, he fired a stunning spell over the top and Voldemort laughed._

 _"Is that the best you can do? I find myself disappointed"_

 _A blasting curse hit the gravestone, Harry was behind and he only just managed to fling himself away from the flying debris._

 _"Come out Potter, face me like a man"._

 _Harry forced his trembling legs to stand and he met the demonic eyes of his enemy once more._

 _"Crucio"_

 _Harry fell, this was the worst agony, he writhed on the ground screaming. He had to get out of here, he had to think, the cup might still be activated, if he could only touch it, he could get back. Harry gasped as the curse finally stopped and rolled to his knees to face the Dark Lord._

 _"Now, prepare to die"_

 _Voldemort raised his wand and Harry ran, he ran as fast as he had ever moved without a broom, he got halfway to the cup before the Petrificus hit him._

 _"Coward, just as weak as your parents before you" Voldemort tutted "very well, so be it", Harry's stunned body was levitated back towards Voldemort, there was nothing he could do, this time Harry mentally prepared to die. Not wishing those glowing red eyes to be the last thing he saw, he closed his, and envisioned all the people he loved, Ron and Hermione laughing with him, Sirius was there and his parents, everyone was happy._

 _That is how Harry missed the cup soaring through the air into the robe covered hands of one of the death eaters._

 _"Snape, what do you think you are doing?" Voldemort yelled,_

 _Harry's eyes flew open as the levitation charm was dropped and he hit the ground, next to the cooling body of Cedric, Harry looked up to see a swirl of black engulf him._

 _"Noooooooo" the Dark Lord howled and the world jerked away._

Harry sat up in bed sweating and panting, it had been nearly two months and yet Harry still dreamed about that night. With a sigh, he got up from his bed in Gryffindor tower, it felt bizarre to be here in the dead of Summer. He trudged down towards the great hall, not for any great appetite for breakfast but in the hopes he'd hear some news of the outside world, this was the first day he'd been allowed out of the hospital wing and he was itching to see the Daily Prophet.

Tucking into his porridge, Harry looked up to see an unexpected blonde head making its way to the single table, standing in the hall. Malfoy plonked down opposite him.

"Potter" he said with a nod then preceded to fill his plate with toast and a vast array of preserves, like his being here was the most normal thing in the world.

"Malfoy, what are you doing here?" Harry couldn't keep the shock out of his voice, didn't the boy have a holiday home in the south of France or a chalet in the Caribbean to go to?

"Much like yourself Potter" Malfoy replied.

Harry doubted he could mean he got beaten up by his relatives and came here to recuperate. At Harry's puzzled face Malfoy sighed and continued.

"I am hiding out from the Dark Lord, my father was instructed to bring me to him, so I could be initiated as a Death Eater. My mother brought me to Dumbledore instead and claimed I ran away".

Harry was even more shocked, why would they do that, weren't they his biggest followers?

"I know what you're thinking Potter and no, my family may believe in protecting wizarding blood, but we do not go around torturing and murdering muggles, that is far too uncouth for a Malfoy" Harry felt his whole world view shifting.

"But why did your father go back then? Why did he end up as a death eater in the first place?".

Malfoy sniffed and looked affronted "You really don't know anything do you, Potter?" Harry shrugged, he couldn't exactly disagree "Look, the dark lord wasn't always like he is now, he had this... charisma. The ideal world he spoke of, Wizards in their rightful place, as the most powerful race… don't look at me like that, we are better than muggles, we can do things they could never dream of, we live twice as long as they do, they're too ignorant and selfish to look after the world around them. Why should wizards hide from them, why should we be made to live in secret?".

Harry had actually never thought of that, gees his knowledge of wizarding history was appalling.

"Malfoy, we're not better than them, they're just different. You're right some muggles in the past were ignorant and did kill a lot of us but that doesn't mean they're all bad"

"No I don't think that, I'd be stupid to, right? The mudbloods….. sorry, Muggle borns, that come here, have muggle parents that don't blab about our world, so they can't all be that bad"

Harry tentatively smiled "So you're saying that's what drew your father in? The idea of ruling over the muggles?"

Draco nodded "you've got to admit it's a tempting idea"

Harry shrugged "not really, I don't wanna rule over anything"

Draco looked confused by the very idea of that "Gryffindors" he huffed and returned to his breakfast.

A few days after and a few more equally tense exchanges with Malfoy later, Dumbledore came into the great hall looking harrowed.

"Severus, a word please" both boys watched, as the potions master joined Dumbledore for a hushed discussion at the side of the room, they didn't miss how both men kept shooting looks their way. Eventually, Snape nodded and left the hall brusquely. Dumbledore approached and Harry felt apprehension rise.

"Ahem" Dumbledore cleared his throat as he stood in front of them "some unfortunate and rather alarming news has reached me overnight"

Harry and Draco glanced nervously at each other.

"There has been a break in at the ministry, the department for magical registries was the target"

"You mean like where the record of all magical people's signatures is?" Draco asked

"Exactly right my boy, and with access to those signatures, any witch or wizard with the trace can be found"

Draco looked wary at this, Harry was just confused.

"Don't you get the trace when you get your wand though" Draco asked again,

"Not quite, the trace is placed as soon as a new magical signature is detected, when any person with magic is born"

"So every witch and wizard can be traced?" Harry asked still with confusion

"Every witch or wizard under the age of majority"

Harry looked at Draco "17" he muttered.

Dumbledore waited patiently for the information to sink in.

"So whoever broke into the department, could have got our signatures and can find where we are?"

Dumbledore nodded gravely "I'm afraid so"

"What can we do?" Harry asked

"Hogwarts cannot keep you safe for long I am afraid boys, Voldemort knows you are here now and he will stop at nothing to break in and take you or find another way to lure you out, you must go into hiding"

Harry's face fell, he wouldn't be staying at Hogwarts?

"What about the trace, Dumbledore, he can still find us?"

Dumbledore appeared to be steeling himself to deliver more bad news, "you will have to get rid of your wands, and leave the magical world" both boys looked about to protest, Dumbledore held his hand up to stop them, "until you reach the age of majority, you are not safe using magic"

"So we run away and hide" Harry stated miserably "and what about the rest of you, we leave you here to face Voldemort alone?"

"Well dear child, none of us have a target quite so squarely centered on our chests and as accomplished as you are Harry, do not fear, we can survive a while, without you".

Harry mumbled about it being the coward's way out, but ultimately, sighed in defeat, there was very little point in arguing with the man when his mind was made up.

"When do we leave?"

"Where are we going?"

"How do we get there without magic?"

Dumbledore was bombarded with questions which he quickly passed off to Snape who had just returned.

"It is all arranged Headmaster, we can make way in an hour"

"Very good lad, and all the best of luck to you, one last thing" Dumbledore peered at all three over his spectacles, "your wands please".

Harry couldn't believe they were going out there defenseless but reluctantly handed his over, it felt as if he was giving a part of himself away.

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	4. Chapter 4

They had set off by car, an hour ago.

 _He had rushed through grabbing the belongings Sirius had collected for him from the Dursley's, shoving them into a backpack Snape had provided, the trunk being too big for the car. Harry then trotted down towards the Syltherin common room to find Malfoy. He waited outside for a few minutes before Snape had come, lugging his own backpack. He let them both into the common room and through to find Draco jumping on his trunk, swearing, trying to force the thing shut._

 _"Draco, I said backpack, not trunk"_

 _"There is no way, uncle Severus, that all my things are going to fit in that ratty bag"._

 _Severus looked furious, "Draco you incompetent fool, out the way"_

 _Draco sulkily flopped onto his bed._

 _Snape took no time in shoving Draco's trunk back open and rifling through the belongings, selecting a few to cram into the discarded backpack. Harry had never seen so many clothes belonging to one person._

 _"Draco, we are going to be living as muggles, what use did you suppose you would find for dress robes?"_

 _Draco looked at Harry incredulously "Muggles don't wear dress robes?"_

 _Harry stifled a giggle "Muggles don't wear any robes, really"_

 _"But I only have robes" Draco sounded a bit nervous now._

 _"Great" Snape said with a wolfish grin and thrust the bag of socks and underwear at Draco._

Harry had taken over the driving about five minutes into the journey, when Snape had not managed to shift out of first gear and the car was groaning ominously. He had glared at the thing and slowly rolled to a stop twisting to face Harry in the back.

"Potter your turn, I cannot work this infernal muggle contraption"

"But I'm 15, I'm not allowed" Harry squeaked but Snape had already thrown his door open and got out. Harry scrambled through to the front as Snape had gone around to the passenger side and motioned for Draco to get out and move into the back.

"I have longer legs Draco, move"

Draco was already in a huff, so this didn't seem to set him off any more. Due to his lack of muggle attire, Malfoy had been forced to wear some ill-fitting second hand clothes, Snape had procured from somewhere, they were slightly outdated, but Harry didn't see the problem. Malfoy, on the other hand, acted as if he had been forced to wear a clown costume, he had moaned on and on until Snape had snapped and threatened that he would swap clothes with the boy. Looking at the even odder mismatch of muggle garments Snape was wearing, Malfoy had shut up.

Harry had driven remarkably better than Snape, having watched his uncle drive for years. Steering was actually pretty easy, it was knowing when to change gears that he found tricky, after a while though he was comfortably cruising along at 40 which was more than enough to have car novices Snape and Malfoy looking petrified. Severus had the map out and was doing a good job at barking instructions and by the time it got dark, Snape acknowledged they were on target for the bed and breakfast he had booked. Snape and Malfoy each got a single bed to themselves and the kindly old lady had provided a camp bed for Harry, Snape had prepared himself for the boys arguing over who got the dud bed, but found himself surprised when Potter had not minded taking it at all.

The next day, Snape had instructed they had to stop off to buy supplies. They pulled into what Harry recognised as a camping store. He didn't know whether to groan or be amused, Draco camping was going to be very interesting. He pictured a scene from an American movie he'd seen as a kid, two children had taken their nightmare of a step mother out into the woods and she had ended up floating on a blow-up bed out on a lake, shame there weren't any lizards, to tease Malfoy with, in the highlands of Scotland, Harry mused to himself.

They picked up a four-man tent, sleeping bags, tinned food and cooking gas. Draco just wandered around with a bemused expression, he really had no clue. Snape was little better, as he kept, begrudgingly, asking Harry questions. When they got to the tills Snape spent a moment looking at the credit card he pulled from his pocket, in confusion, he then handed it straight to the girl serving, as if it to pay directly with the piece of plastic. The girl stifled a giggle and then reached over to put the card into the chip and pin machine for Snape, before waiting expectantly. Snape summoned Harry over and muttered under his breath, asking what on earth he was expected to do with this machine thingy. Harry eventually got out of him, that there had been a slip of paper with the card with 4 numbers on it and Harry deduced that must be the pin, not the equivalent value of the piece of plastic in galleons, as Snape had supposed.

They stopped off at a supermarket for lunch. Standing in front of a vast array of pre-packaged sandwiches Snape gestured at the shelves

"Pick something out to eat then"

Harry quickly grabbed a plain ham sandwich, then excused himself to get more camping supplies, there were a few things he thought would be useful. When he returned, it was to see his sandwich and one cheese and pickle in Snape's basket, Malfoy was picking up sandwiches, scrutinising the label, before discarding each and starting on the next.

"What about tuna? You cannot claim not to like tuna, you order it every time at Njord's"

"I only like tuna steak, which that grey mush, is not and what on earth is 'mayo'?" Malfoy replied sounding disgusted.

Snape threw a hand up in exasperation "Potter, maybe you can recommend something?"

Harry started perusing the selection, "There's sushi down here, that's got proper tuna in it"

Malfoy's eyes fell on the bright, neatly packaged selection of sushi, before he grabbed a few and handed them to Snape. Snape raised his eyebrows incredulously at Harry before ushering them both over to the checkouts.

By the end of that day they had driven to the end of dirt track that was slowly disappearing into the shrubbery around it.

"Right, time for us to continue on foot" Snape informed them.

Malfoy balked "What here? for how long, where are we going?".

Snape just finished emptying the car, handing the boy's their backpacks, with the sleeping bags now tied on top.

"Where are we going to sleep? What about food? Where do we go to the toilet?" Malfoy whined

"What did you think the trowel was for?" Harry smirked as Draco promptly shut up, and helped Snape secure the tent to his bag. Snape pulled a compass and map out and handed them to Harry.

"Any ideas?"

Harry chuckled, what did purebloods spend their childhoods doing? Even with Harry's limited leisure experiences as a child, he had still been on orienteering school trips.

"Do you have the co-ordinates for where we're going?", Snape handed him another piece of paper. Harry folded the map back to show the area they were in, found the location of where they were headed, set a bearing with the compass and indicated he was ready to go.

"It's somebody's lucky day" Harry murmured as he glanced at their abandoned car.

They trekked for about an hour until the light failed and Snape decided to set up camp, or rather, decided to throw the tent at Harry and tell him to set up camp. Harry quickly read the instructions and had the thing erected in no time, Snape and Malfoy stared at him as if he'd just built the Sistine chapel in the middle of the woods. He then preceded to set up the camping stove and heat through the meals in a bag, they had bought. After doing so much exercise, even Draco didn't turn his nose up much at the congealed gloop, they found themselves eating. The hot chocolate and marshmallows, Harry had sneaked off to buy, soon perked him up anyway. Snape was impressed Harry had thought to do something like that for Draco.

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day they got up bright and early, keen to get to their destination quickly and not have to spent too much time in that god-awful tent. They trudged through the undergrowth until midday, when Draco tripped over a log. Although Snape declared there was nothing wrong with his ankle, Draco insisted he was in agony and they would have to stop. Harry and Snape looked at each other, each dreading the thought of dragging out their journey any longer. Harry shrugged off his backpack and handed it to Snape, Snape took it but didn't understand why.

"Come on Malfoy, piggy back".

Draco blinked up at him, "is that some kind of insult?" whilst twisting around to see if there was anything wrong with him.

"No, Malfoy, it's where someone carries someone else on their back"

"No, no way, Potter, you cannot carry Draco, he is twice the size of you, you will be crippled"

"Nah, it's fine" Draco stood up and hopped over to him, Harry bent down and Draco jumped up, Harry grabbing him beneath the knees as Draco grasped his shoulders.

Snape harrumphed but repositioned Harry's backpack alongside his own as they set off. After about half an hour of not much slower progress, Snape was getting more worried, Harry was skin and bone, he had seen as much when treating his injuries just the other week, Draco was by no means overweight but he was much broader and taller than the other boy, Harry must be hurting.

"Draco that's enough, surely you are capable of walking by now"

"No really it's fine" Harry insisted, "I'm quite strong, like one of those welsh mountain ponies"

Snape smirked at that. "Not Welsh, your family is Irish".

Harry was intrigued he didn't know anything about his family roots. "What the Potters or my Mum's side"

"The Potters are famous Irish purebloods, only moving over here a century or so ago, your mother's family were Irish gypsies"

"Wow, I really had no idea about any of that, did you know my mum well?" Harry knew Snape must have been at school when his parents were, due to Snape's repeated references that he was "just like his father", but he'd never considered that meant Snape knew his mother too.

"We grew up in Leeds together"

Harry looked at his teacher in wonder, where had this knowledge been hiding? "what was she like?"

Snape seemed to close off "We grew apart at Hogwarts, I only knew her as a young child"

"Oh" Harry was a bit disappointed Snape didn't seem to want to talk anymore about it.

"Is that why you're so scruffy?" Draco butted in.

"Is what why?" Harry ignored the obvious insult.

"You've got gypsy blood"

Harry laughed, trust Draco to fixate on the importance of blood. "Let me guess, Malfoy, you're descended from the Kings and Queens of wizarding England"

"Actually Malfoy's are Danish and yes, we were Royalty"

Harry snorted, he knew it. "What about the Snape's?" Harry enquired.

"The Snape's are Russian, my mother's side, the Princes, are an old English family". After that they fell into silence and by the end of the day, Draco was walking by himself again.

The next day, Harry estimated would be their last, Snape asked him to make a detour to the West, as there was a muggle retail park that they needed to stock up on muggle supplies. As they walked, Harry was humming to himself, Draco recognised it as a weird sister track and demanded Harry sing it, as he was bored. Snape waited for the obvious refusal, instead Harry started up the first verse about broomstick riding at midnight and carried on, in a melodic voice, presumably remembering all the words. Severus was bemused, did Harry not realise he could say no to Draco? although he was glad he hadn't he didn't want another strop on his hands, maybe Harry didn't either. They carried on like this, with Draco shouting out names of songs and either Harry singing them or saying he didn't know them, when they ran out of wizarding songs Harry knew, Draco demanded something muggle. These sounded much the same to Snape, about love and teenage angst, although the words in the muggle songs were a little more risqué.

Before re-entering society, they stopped to wash in a stream. Harry supplied them with soap and towels, then disappeared off downstream to clean himself. Snape shrugged and stripped off, he didn't particularly care about his godson seeing him naked, neither did Draco, it turned out as he joined him. When Harry returned, all were washed and in clean, if just as odd, clothes.

"Never took you for such a prude, Potter" Draco remarked "Don't you have to share the showers after quidditch?"

Harry looked embarrassed "well I try not to" Snape suspected he knew why, he'd seen just how scrawny the boy was under his baggy clothes.

They arrived on the outskirts of an out of town commercial metropolis. Shops, cinemas, bowling alleys and restaurants. Without a decent meal for the past few days, Snape decided to take them to get food first, Draco was always more manageable when he wasn't hypoglycaemic. Glancing around at the array of different food outlets he found himself, once again, looking to Harry.

"Erm maybe pizza" Harry suggested, Snape didn't know what that was but the restaurant Harry pointed to was close and didn't look too busy.

Snape and Draco stared down at the giant triangle of gooey food that was placed in front of them, "How is one intended to eat this?" "oh" Harry realised their problem, everything at Hogwarts required a knife and fork.

"Just pick it up" Harry demonstrated and took a big bite. By the end of the meal Harry was still looking pristine, or as pristine as you can after only bathing in a stream for the last few days. Snape and Draco were a greasy mess.

"Oh great idea, Potter, what genius decided this was an acceptable way to dine?" Snape and Draco both headed off to the toilet to clean up, before leaving Draco added

"Well I happened to like the giant tomatoey cheese on toast", Harry felt weirdly glad he'd picked something Draco had actually praised.

In the clothing shop Snape turned to instruct the boys, "Right, you need to get yourself basic muggle clothes, jeans, T-shirts, jumpers, trainers, pyjamas that sort of thing" Draco nodded as he wondered off, he liked shopping for robes, so this should be equally as fun. Harry groaned, he hated shopping.

After several stressful hours, the three boys reconvened. "Harry would you check through our selections to ensure they a suitably muggle" Snape asked, Harry rifled through, Snape's were predictably dark and quite formal but he thought passable. Draco had gone to town, jeans, chinos, shorts, shirts, polo-shirts, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, trainers, boots, sandals, sunglasses, jackets and jumpers, multiple pairs of pyjama bottoms and on and on in a vast variety of colours tending towards greys and blues. Harry was overwhelmed looking but was sure Draco must be able to pull together a passable ensemble from that lot.

Stowing their purchases in the extra backpacks Snape had bought they trudged back into the woods, severely more weighed down than before, Harry assured them though, they were only a few miles from their destination. Said destination turned out to be a bus terminal, and the boys groaned, having been lead to believe by Snape that they were walking towards their new abode. Before Harry could figure out what they needed to do, Snape pulled out another piece of paper, this one a bus timetable, with the number 13 bus highlighted and a ring around its final stop. Harry took this to mean catch the 13 to its final destination and indicated to the others which bus stop they would need. Once again, Snape marveled at the boy's practicality.

The journey took forever, stopping for a passenger at every stop. Draco was looking thoroughly green by the end of it, Harry had pulled off some of the elastic straps from his bag and tied them tightly around Draco's wrists. Draco was too nauseous to ask why, when Snape shot him a questioning look Harry leaned over to whisper.

"Travel bands, putting pressure on the pulse point should stop his urge to vomit" Snape had never heard that before but as Draco did manage to hold onto his lunch, he assumed the bands had worked. Once disembarked, a middle-aged woman was there to meet them.

"Hi, I'm Trish, I believe you're renting one of my properties, I'm here to show you up there". Snape smiled and shook the woman's hand introducing them. They followed the woman through a small town, noticing a school, a few corner shops and a pub on the way. When the houses began to thin out a bit, they turned up a gravel driveway.

The house was by no means a mansion, but it was pretty big, modern in design and undeniably muggle. Trish unlocked the door, handing the keys to Snape when she was done and preceded to show them around. The ground floor, comprised a spacious well equipped kitchen that opened out into a dining room, the colour scheme was bland and neutral throughout. The lounge sported a large squashy leather sofa and a couple of matching armchairs all pointed towards a ginormous television which Snape and Draco eyed curiously. Upstairs, they found a well-stocked library, three good-sized bedrooms, one with an en-suite and a separate bathroom.

"Alright then gentlemen, that's it from me, if you need me for anything, my phone number is on the fridge, cheerio" Trish waved and headed out the front door.

"Her what what is on the what?" Draco asked.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Who wants which room?"

Snape walked over to the largest with its own bathroom and disappeared inside, "that answers that. Draco?" Harry was fast becoming accustomed to Snape's brusqueness. Draco peered between the other two rooms, then settled for the one furthest away from Snape's.

"This one's mine" he stated and disappeared into his. Are all slytherins this rude? Harry thought tiredly.

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	6. Chapter 6

"Dinner!"

Harry hollered as he set the bowl of tomato pasta bake down in the center of the dining table, typically, Draco came bounding into the room, looking like one not fed for days. 10 minutes after the boys tucked in, the clomp of Snape coming up the stairs from his makeshift potions lab, in the cellar, was heard. Snape had quickly set himself up with cauldrons, burners and potions ingredients in the basement, courtesy of many strange packages, arriving in the post from Dumbledore.

Snape served himself some pasta, then sat and prodded at it

"Tomato and…. rice?"

"No, it's that other one"

"pasta" Harry informed them, he found it hard to belief these two had spent their whole lives living off traditional English food, for the first few weeks Malfoy had repeatedly asked where the gravy was.

"Have the other defence texts come through the posts yet?" Snape inquired

"Just those books yesterday" Harry said

"Eurgh, more books, I am so bored of reading, I don't see what good it is doing us without wands to practice with anyway" Draco moaned for what felt like the thousandth time.

"I do believe we have had this conversation before" Snape said in an attempt to get Draco to drop it.

"So, why do we have to spent all day reading, when there is no point?"

Snape raised his eyebrows at his godson "Got something better to be doing?"

"Well I don't see you reading for the entire day"

"That is because I have already had the joy of graduating from Hogwarts and besides, I do have something more important to be doing"

"What are you working on now?" the other boy at the table piped up.

Snape smiled to himself, glad to have the opportunity to talk about his brewing "I am in the process of developing a base for a potion that I hope can either mask, remove or alter a person's magical signature"

"If it works, we could go back?" Harry asked, hopefully.

"We are a long way away from that Mr Potter, without magic to test it on, I am left in the dark as to any successes I may be having"

"Why do you want to go back so badly?" Draco sounded a bit hurt.

"Don't you? I mean they're all back there in danger, fighting and training and doing something useful, what are we achieving here?" Harry said passionately.

"The preservation of your life, young saviour" Snape drawled.

Harry ignored that as he'd heard it all before.

"Don't you want to use magic again?" Harry couldn't understand Draco's complacency at being stuck here.

"Course I do, but if I do, I'm dead and my Slytherin sense of self-preservation won't allow that".

Harry shook his head at the other boy and went to clear the table and wash the dishes. Harry didn't mind that over the last few months, he'd become the house elf, he knew the other two hadn't a clue about anything domestic, plus it helped take his mind off being stuck here. He missed Ron and Hermione, he'd posted the occasional letter, the muggle way, and they had replied, but it was hard for them and he felt guilty making them go to all that effort just to make himself feel better. He also missed magic, not because he was lazy, but he missed the sense of awe he felt when he saw magic around him.

The weather was slowly turning grimmer and after Draco had complained about his feet turning blue, one too many times, Harry decided to turn the heating on. Draco and Snape found the radiators fascinating, "how's it hot, there isn't any flame?" leading to a bizarre lesson on the inner workings of a central heating system.

"Why's this radiator not radiating anything, Harry?"

Harry went to join Snape in the library to find that Snape was right, it wasn't getting hot.

"Ah, Trish said there was a book of people who could help with this thought of thing" Snape remembered.

"It's okay, Snape, it just needs bleeding, I can do that, we don't need the yellow pages". Harry nipped downstairs to get a wrench and a bowl to catch the water, then set about letting the air out of the system.

"Do all muggles teach children how to carry out the work of a handyman?" Snape was looking quizzically at Harry as Harry knelt back and wiped his brow. He flushed and stammered.

"Er yeah sure, you know, just the basics and stuff" he jumped up busying himself with his used equipment and hurried out.

"What's his problem?" Draco drawled from his place lounging in an armchair.

"I find it hard to believe, normal muggle children know half as much about domestic chores as Potter does"

"Yeah, so?"

"It just makes me wonder about his upbringing"

"You mean, like how he can cook all those different things and knows how to clean everything and how to work all the thingamies in the laundry?"

"It stands to reason, the only way a child would have all of those skills would be if they were made to use them an awful lot".

Draco was sitting up now, looking a bit upset "Do you think Harry's family were treating him like a house elf?... like we've been treating him?".

"Hmm, Potter has insisted on carrying out all our household duties, that doesn't make it right that his guardians brought him up like that though, it would also explain the state he was in on his arrival at Hogwarts".

Draco's interest was even further peaked at this, he had missed Harry's stint in the hospital "what was wrong with him?"

"He was very badly beaten and severely malnourished"

"He's okay now though, right?"

Snape was surprised at Draco's compassion "I believe so, the boy is not one for sharing though".

Draco looked thoughtful "do we have any books on cooking?"

Snape had a bad feeling about this but didn't want to discourage Draco from wanting to help "I'm sure you'll find some around here somewhere, maybe ask Potter about it first".

Draco didn't pay that any attention, he had a plan forming. The next morning Harry bounced down the stairs to make their breakfasts when, an alarming smell met his nose, this didn't smell like one of Snape's brews either. The sight that greeted him in the kitchen was pandemonium, there was flour covering every surface, what looked like all of the pots and pans were out and dirty, as well as at least half of the utensils, what on earth was the potato peeler, doing out? In the midst of all the chaos was a blond-haired teenager, looking sheepish.

"How do you know when a pancake is cooked?" Draco asked before turning to the stove, where the source of the smell was revealed. Harry rushed over grabbed the burning frying pan and doused it in the sink. Leaning back against the counter and heaving a sigh of relief he looked at Draco.

"About 10 minutes before it looked like that" Harry giggled but Draco didn't find it funny.

"Well sorrreee for trying to make breakfast, just thought it'd be nice to have a go, for a change"

Wait, was Draco blaming him for this? When did he suddenly decide to become a domestic goddess? "Draco, you could have asked me for help"

"Cos you're just the best at everything aren't you, oh stupid Draco can't even crack an egg"

It was then Harry saw the pile of egg shell and raw egg on the floor, he didn't think it the best time to mention that.

"How about we run out to the shops and get some more eggs, then I'll show you how to make pancakes?"

Draco seemed to get over his embarrassed defensiveness at that, it did sound fun "I'll go to the shop, you can, er get the kitchen ready".

Harry laughed at how Draco had avoided mentioning the bomb site the kitchen had become. Making the pancakes was actually very fun for both of them and Draco asked if he could help more often, Harry made him promise to only "help" when he was in the room with him.

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead


	7. Chapter 7

They'd met Anna in November, Harry and Draco had been listlessly plodding round the park as Snape had made the house smell like rotten eggs and they needed fresh air. The girl, dirty blond hair, hazel eyes and freckles dancing across her round cheeks, had come bouncing over to them.

"Hey, you two new around here, I haven't seen you in school?"

Draco looked taken a back so Harry answered "We're home-schooled, we've been here a few months now"

"I'm Anna, that's my friend Grace" the girl pointed back to where she'd come from, a tiny girl with dyed black hair and heavy, dark make-up was looking at them from across the park.

"I'm Harry and this is my friend, Draco" Draco smiled shakily at the stranger.

"Do you two live together? What about your parents?"

Draco tensed up, so Harry jumped in again "we're foster kids, we live with our foster father, Severus"

"That's cool, you should come and play with us some time we hang out in the park after school most days"

"Is it just you and Grace?"

"Me brothers, sometimes. Jed, he's my twin and Rori, he's a dweeb but we let him join in sometimes" Harry laughed as he thought that was the right thing to do and agreed.

When the girls had left, Draco hissed at Harry "now what do we do? they'll expect us to play with them"

"So, don't you want to make friends?"

"Not with muggles!".

That really annoyed Harry and he turned to stomp off back home.

"Wait Harry, I didn't mean that" Draco ran to keep up.

"I think you did Draco, you still think you're so much better than them don't you? You couldn't stand to be associated with the likes of muggles!"

"No, honest, I just meant, I can't be friends with them when every second word they use, is like a foreign language to me, what on Earth is a dweep anyway?"

Harry laughed, Draco entirely forgiven "I think she said dweeb, but I don't really know, I think it's local slang. We'll be fine anyway, muggles expect home-schooled kids to be a bit weird. Plus, they're Scottish, we're English, we'll just pass any differences off as cultural"

"What like the fact I don't know the difference between a TV and a microwave?" Harry ended up in fits of giggles at that. Draco couldn't help admiring Harry while he laughed. His high cheek bones were flushed with pink and his bright eyes sparkled. Harry had a beautifully long, slender neck, giving him a delicate look, but it thrilled Draco to know that was a deception, Harry was incredibly strong.

Draco shook himself, why was he thinking about Harry's neck for goodness sake? Embarrassed, Draco sped up the walk home, Harry got a bit left behind so he jogged to keep up and overtake him. As Harry jogged in front, Draco's eyes were drawn to the other's figure, Harry was wearing tight jeans, tucked into lace up boots, highlighting his long, lean legs, the muscles could almost be seen tensing and flexing as Harry moved. Draco couldn't keep his eyes off the other boy, 'stop staring', he scalded himself, 'wow I must be desperate for female company' he thought, trying to explain away his fixation. Maybe it was a good thing to make friends with those girls, Draco thought, then he could stop gawping at the boy before him.

Draco knew he liked girls, right? He had dated precisely two of them. After the yule ball the previous year, his date, Daphne Greengrass, had said she had a surprise for him. She had preceded snog him senseless and they had fallen into bed together. Draco had enjoyed it, he was sure of that, although he had been a bit drunk. By New year they had broken up, but at the party, his father had thrown, Pansy had approached him. After a few dances, he had asked her back to his room where they'd spent all night in each other's arms. Draco thought he had preferred this night to his one with Daphne, as Pansy was less controlling and more adventurous. Him and Pansy had been out quite a few times between then, and this summer. That must be his problem, Draco mused, he'd started to get used to having a girlfriend and she had been taken away from him. His arousal, as he walked along the pavement, was nothing to do with Harry at all, or so he liked to tell himself.

They spent a few afternoons a week, hanging out in the park with the other teenagers, they gossiped about school and how pushy their parents were being. Harry and Draco joined in, modifying some of their answers to be muggle friendly. Draco found Anna easy to talk to, she nattered on and barely required a response from him, normally he loathed not being center of attention, but the muggles left him so nervous that he was happy to let Anna have it. Grace was quiet and shy, Harry seemed to talk to her the most, Draco would have suspected Harry fancied her, which irritated him for reasons he didn't even want to know. What did unsettle him, was the attention Jed paid Harry, he was always asking Harry, what he was doing later, or how his school work was coming along. Draco fumed about this, why does he even want to know anyway? He doesn't actually care about our schoolwork, he just wants Harry's attention. One time Jed asked if he and Harry were together, Harry sputtered "No" and Jed smirked, Draco was very annoyed about that, stupid Jed and his stupid freckles.

One evening found, the boys and Snape, watching some history documentary Harry said would be interesting. The parallels between the Nazis and Voldemort had been a bit too disturbing for Snape to really enjoy it though. As Harry had clicked off the TV and stood to leave for bed, Snape had noted the look on Draco's face. The boy was practically drooling gazing at up at Harry's form. Harry hadn't noticed and had headed upstairs, however, Snape was amused to notice, Draco's glazed eyes following him out of the room. Honestly, he tutted to himself, stick anything in tight jeans and trust a teenage boy to go panting after it.

Draco was getting so confused, they were spending increasingly more time around their new friends, he could look at Anna and Grace and say they were pretty, Grace had a cute petite thing going for her and Anna was curvy and had sexy confidence. However, despite the female company, he was still getting aroused by Harry. When his fantasies started turning from running his fingers through long hair while kissing a pretty witch, to holding onto a more chiseled, masculine jaw, Draco couldn't help but be disturbed, what was happening to him?

* * *

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning for underage drinking**

Harry was on the phone with Grace, Draco was hovering around eagerly, trying to hear what the two were talking about. It was the day after boxing day and they hadn't seen their friends in a while, having been busy with their families.

Harry finally said "sure, we'll see you there" and hung up.

"Well?" Draco asked impatiently

"Grace wanted to know if we'd go to the New Year's Eve party at her friend Megan's house"

"And you said yes, right?" Draco finally had something to be excited about, getting alcohol past Snape was near impossible meaning they had been boringly well behaved whilst living with the man.

"Of course, she said to come "dressy" whatever that means"

Draco's smile got broader "that means, shopping"

"Oh no" Harry had suddenly lost all enthusiasm.

The next day, found Harry and Draco in their nearest shopping district. Draco was having a great time, he had picked out a pair of smart grey trousers and a pale blue shirt, he was just selecting some shiny shoes when, Harry nudged him holding out a handful of clothes.

"Dray, you have to help, I don't have a clue about this stuff" Draco flicked through the shirts Harry was holding, he pulled the best two selections out, a deep emerald green one made of silky material and a navy, cotton one.

"Try these two on" Harry wanted to refuse, but he also dreaded looking like an idiot at the party so he headed off to the fitting rooms, dragging Draco with him. Draco waited patiently outside, until Harry peeked around the door and yanked him inside. Harry was wearing the plainer navy one, the short sleeves exposed his wiry, efficiently muscled arms, but the colour was draining, his skin to creamy to pull off the dark shade.

"Hmm, sorry Harry, I think you might need something brighter, to suit your colouring" Harry sighed, he could see Draco's point, he kind of disappeared whilst wearing the thing.

"Try this one" Draco commanded and went to leave, but before he could, Harry had pulled the shirt over his head. Don't stare, don't stare, Draco willed as he took in Harry's lightly muscled abdomen tensing and shifting as he pulled at the shirt, as Harry's head re-emerged, Draco flushed and ducked out of the cubicle.

The next shirt, was a much better choice, the sleeves were longer than the other, but Harry had folded them up, in his typical practical manner, the effect was well… sexy, Draco admitted to himself. And the colour, was perfect, it brought out his complexion and made his emerald eyes pop, Draco couldn't avert his own eyes, Harry's were so bright and expressive, he wanted to get lost in them.

Harry gave him an odd look, "so, is this one okay?" he asked uncertainly.

Draco shrugged "I guess it will do" he stated nonchalantly, whilst planning how he was going to avoid Harry as much as possible at the party, so nobody would notice his gawping.

The night of the party, Harry spent forever trying to flatten his untameable hair, but as it was just that, he still ended up sporting a birds nest atop his head. When Draco knocked on his door he wolf-whistled at the sight, green suited the boy so well. Draco's now ingrained mantra of, stop staring, stop staring, going around and round in his head.

"I thought you'd be struggling with that" he said, whilst motioning to Harry's hands still running through his hair.

He threw a round tub at Harry which Harry plucked out the air.

"Erm, do I get a hint?" he asked in confusion

"Here" Draco said, then grabbed the tub back from Harry. He coated his fingers with what looked like a very greasy paste and grabbed the other boy by the hair.

"Oi" Harry yelped at the rough treatment but had to admit, once Draco had finished pushing and pulling his hair into shape, he did look a lot better.

Draco's breath caught as he had to bend down to apply the gel to his friend's hair, Draco could appreciate the boy's gleaming eyes at a much closer level. He felt as if he could drown in their depths, there was brightness and defiance and strength in them, he felt as if, if he were lost in the dark, these eyes could guide him home, make him safe again.

"Erm, Draco?" brought him out of his reveries.

"Er, Yeah. Great much better"

Draco, reluctantly let Harry's head go and rushed off the clean the grease from his hands. As he glanced at his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, he was intrigued to see that the silver of his eyes had almost been swallowed up by the black of his pupil. That's odd, he thought, the same thing had happened to Harry's eyes…. Must be the lighting he mused.

Once at the party, the boys threw themselves well and truly into the fun, there were tequila shots and games of truth or dare and spin the bottle. To Draco's annoyance the bottle landed on Harry for Grace and, as a joke, for a boy called Nathan. Draco waited for the embarrassed refusal, but Nathan leered and crawled across to kiss Harry. Draco fumed but Harry barely pecked the other boy then jokingly pushed him away, to Draco's relief.

He himself, also got to kiss Grace and then Anna, but if asked about it later, he wouldn't be able to remember much, he was too caught up in what Harry was doing.

After that, separate groups drifted off and somebody turned up the music. Draco found himself with Anna and Jed, he thought Harry was with Grace nearby, but things were getting a bit hazy after his 12th shot and he was losing track of time.

As the hours wore on, Meghan had joined them and Draco noticed she kept smiling up at him and blinking beneath her lashes, he knew that sign. He shrugged away from the wall he was slumped against, "come an' dance, Meg" he grabbed her hand and they fell against each other, stumbling around more than really dancing.

He caught site of Grace and Anna giggling together, he first thought they were laughing at him, but then he saw where they were looking.

At the other side of the room, through the kitchen door, he could see the back of the Nathan boy, pushing someone up against the counter.

They had their arms wrapped around each other and were obviously kissing ferociously, as Nathan lent down to kiss at the person's neck, Draco got a better view and saw Harry throwing his head back as a kiss got placed on his throat. Draco saw red, he lurched away from Megan and shoved his way through the dancing bodies.

"Get your hands off him" he shouted, grabbing the back of Nathan's shirt, pulling the boy round and landing his fist in the center of Nathan's face.

Harry stumbled forward trying to stop him, but wobbled and ended up in a heap against the counter.

"What's your problem?"

Draco didn't answer just continued to jab his fists at the boy in front of him, Nathan started to duck and fight back, Draco caught a punch to the chin and another to the eye.

"Shtop it, Ray" Harry moaned from the floor.

"Harry, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Don't feel well" Harry moaned.

Others had joined them in the kitchen now, Jed pulled Draco away from Nathan and somebody else took care of the other boy.

"Maybe it's time to take him home now" Jed said gesturing at the lump of Harry.

"Come on then, upsies" Draco scooped Harry up, supporting his weight over his shoulder as Harry stumbled to his feet. They staggered their way to the door, where Harry spun around, his hand meandering in an arc in the air "sbye, guyss".

It took forever for Draco to lug Harry home, Harry kept stopping to puke and Draco felt bruised and a little worse for wear himself. When they'd reached the front door, he realised Harry had left his bag, with the door key in it, at the party. Resignedly he rang the doorbell and awaited the wrath of his godfather.

There was a bump inside, then "What in the blazes" a grouchy looking Snape appeared, just as Harry stumbled forward and was violently sick on the doorstep.

"Bleeding teenagers" Snape swore. When Harry had finished Snape scooped him up, bridal style and carried him up to the bathroom, Draco followed guiltily, he knew Snape had expected him to look after the other boy tonight and he had failed miserably. Snape plopped Harry in the tub and stripped him to his boxers, he gently washed him with a flannel and warm water from the sink, Harry sat there, totally out of it.

"Wait here" he'd snapped at Draco as he wrapped Harry in a dressing gown and left the room.

When he returned, he looked furious.

"I'm glad it already looks as if somebody beat the crap out of you, or else I may have felt inclined to do it myself" he took a breath to calm down "what happened?" he said tiredly.

Draco shrugged, he couldn't really explain why he got so angry, he'd never been in a muggle fight before, he'd never felt angry enough.

"Jus' got in a fight" Draco really didn't want to have this conversation.

"Over?" Snape pushed.

"S'nothing just too much to drink"

"Foolish boy, let me see where're you're hurt" Snape grabbed cotton wool and some foul-smelling, stinging solution and dabbed it on Draco's cuts and bruises.

"Drink a glass of water before bed, I am off to make sure Harry doesn't choke in his sleep"

"Do you want me to stay up with him instead?" Draco offered.

"I do not trust you to stay awake, go get some sleep, you can make it up to me by washing the front step in the morning" Eww, Draco groaned as he made his way to his bedroom.

The next afternoon found a tender looking Harry curled on the sofa sipping black coffee, still in his pyjamas. Draco wandered in, having shaken off the worst of his hangover that morning.

"How're you feeling?" Draco asked tentatively

"Like all the moisture in my body has been sucked out by thirsty dementors"

Draco grinned and flopped down next to him "do you remember much?"

"Oh god, just bits and bobs" Harry groaned head in his hands "there was this guy, he was standing really close, and and, erm" Harry looked up, gazing into the distance trying to piece together information "then he was holding my hand, kept holding it, I was so confused, I think we ended up kissing… yeah we did, he tasted like liquorice, like that disgusting drink some of them had" Harry paused going a bit green and promptly put his coffee down.

"Then you were there shouting and you were punching each other, then, I think we left, that sound about right?"

"Pretty much" Draco confessed.

"Why were you fighting with him, Dray? I didn't think you'd ever met the guy"

"Well I could say the same about you kissing him"

"Yeah but Draco, kissing someone at a party is considered a lot more socially acceptable than punching them, I'd have assumed the same rules applied at wizard parties" Harry smirked at him cheekily.

Draco didn't want to let Harry off the hook so easily "You can't just go around kissing random boys, Harry, in case you've forgotten, we're in hiding here. You can't draw attention to yourself like that"

Harry's smile died on his lips "It's not your business who I kiss, even if they are boys, what's the problem?"

Draco was getting angry again, was Harry saying he was going to be kissing other boys? "the problem is, that this army of boys you plan on locking lips with, will get you undue attention"

"Oh, so what if I kissed a guy? Nobody cares nowadays" 'well I care' Draco fumed, Harry could not go around kissing boys willy nilly.

"No, getting into a relationship is too risky. We're going to have to come up with an excuse as to why I beat up Nathan and saying you and I are going out, is as good as any".

Harry's throbbing brain took a moment to catch up with where their conversation had headed "You want me to pretend to be your boyfriend, so you get away with randomly punching a guy?" and so nobody else tries to kiss you, Draco added.

"Yes, I believe that is the most reasonable explanation" Harry was too tired for this "fine, I guess so, it's not like we'll actually have to date".

Would that be so terrible? Draco thought.

When Anna and Jed called to check on Harry later, they sat together in the living room. Draco apologised for hitting Nathan and explained that it was because he liked Harry but he hadn't known, he had confessed his feelings last night and now they were a couple.

Draco took Harry's hand when he said that, as he hadn't missed the jealous look, Jed had shot Harry. Anna just gushed that they were so cute together.

When Snape had wandered by the living room and caught site of the joint hands, he raised an eyebrow at Draco, who made a shrugging gesture at him. Snape was the only one to see the disappointed look Harry got as his hand was dropped.

Snape's mind, once again, wandered to the fight Draco had gotten into and the mystery as to why a boy, who tended to hide behind thugs to prevent getting involved in violence was now acting the thug himself. He also pondered what part Harry had played in it, something was going on between the two boys that was for sure.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	9. Chapter 9

"Snape! Snape! Can you come here? there's something wrong with the house!"

Snape distantly heard the shriller of the two boys, he lived with, calling him. He placed his book down and wandered out the library, by god but things got melodramatic round here quickly.

"Sernaape!" Harry was yelling again, Snape sped up and realised Harry was down in the cellar.

"Coming boy, cease your caterwauling" Snape had reached the steps and took them two at a time "what is it?"

He found Harry crouched in a corner prodding at something. Peering over the boy's shoulder, he recoiled in disgust.

"I think something's eating the house"

"I might have to agree with you there, Potter, right I'll find a man to ring in that yellow book of yours". Snape trotted back upstairs, great there was always something, he suspected what looked like an infestation of wood eating doxy spores was possibly muggle termites.

Draco was less than thrilled when he heard the news "Why can't I just stay in my room while they flumistate the place?"

"Because Draco, for the twentieth time, unless you want to be exposed to toxic fumigation gas, we must leave the property, and funnily enough, the last time I checked, your bedroom was still a part of the property."

Draco harrumphed and stomped out the room "fine, as long as wherever we're going, I get my own room" was heard before a door, probably his bedroom's, slammed shut.

Harry sighed from where he was busy packing his textbooks into a satchel. "He's going to be unbearable when he sees the hotel room".

Snape could only nod and agree. At such short notice, all he could book was a family room, one double and one single bed, one bathroom. The next week was going to be a nightmare.

Draco was very loudly, not speaking to either of them. They'd checked in several hours ago and Draco had, first proclaimed the double bed was all his, then when Snape scowled for long enough, had decreed that Potter and Severus were to share the double bed and he'd have the single. Snape had neither agreed nor disagreed, just left his bag on the single bed and told them to be in the dining room in an hour.

Harry tucked into his jacket potato, happy that he could pretend to be engrossed in eating, to avoid the scowling match going on over his ducked head.

"Draco, are you going to eat anything?"

"My fish is cold" Draco whined

"That might be because, you've been glaring at it rather than eating it for the last 15 minutes"

Draco harrumphed and continued not to eat his fish.

"I am not going out to fetch you food later when you decide you regret having missed your dinner".

The argument continued on and on and Harry blocked it out, concentrating on spearing one bean at a time onto his fork.

Eventually the meal was ended and Harry gratefully followed the others up to their room.

"Potter, you're first in the bathroom" Harry even more gratefully grabbed his pyjamas and wash bag and disappeared inside, oh great, no lock, oh well no one was likely to barge in on him. Or that's what Harry thought, he was just finishing rinsing the soap suds off from his shower, when the bathroom door burst open, Draco stormed in and slammed the door behind him. Harry shut the water off and grabbed a towel.

"Er can I help you Draco?" Harry was busily trying to cover as much of his body as he could behind the cheap, tiny hotel towel.

"Oh grow up Harry, I don't want to perve on you" Harry flushed with embarrassment and settled for tying the towel around his waist, just hoping he wouldn't need to bend down for anything. Draco was dramatically flopped on the lid of the toilet, pouting for England.

"What happened then?" Harry felt the need to ask.

"The professor has decided that he is to have his own bed and I have to share with you".

Harry couldn't bring himself to be offended that Draco made it sound as bad as if he were being made to share his bed with a rotting corpse, he knew Draco too well by now.

"It's only for a week Dray, I don't snore, honest".

That seemed to cheer Draco up a bit and Harry wondered if he was just playing this up for attention.

"So, any other reason you're in here, watching me shower?" Harry joked, but Draco flushed looking angry again,

"Of course not, don't flatter yourself, Potter!" Draco snarled and stormed out

"That's not what I meant, Dray" Harry called out but the door had already slammed in his face.

The two hadn't shared another word after that exchange and now they were lying as far away from each other, in the mediocrely sized bed, as possible. Snape was snoring away in the corner but Harry couldn't tell if Draco was asleep or not, his glowing clock face told him it was quarter to three in the morning and he couldn't drift off, he felt bad about the misunderstanding in the bathroom. Draco was acting a bit weird lately, he just couldn't take a joke and he got prissy about everything, Harry felt confused and a bit hurt. He was closest to Draco out of anyone, now that his other friends were so far away and he'd thought he and Draco were getting to understand each other. Harry sighed and finally drifted off.

It could have been five minutes later, it could have been 5 hours, all Harry knew was that the empty space behind him, in bed, was no longer. There was a warm solid weight against him and Harry couldn't help but snuggle into that comforting presence, he felt so warm and safe, he drifted deeper into sleep.

Draco, had woken up at the movement, his sleep addled brain only registered the intoxicating smell of the body in front of him and its warm presence in his arms. He couldn't help himself and brought that body, Harry, his mind provided, back against himself. He felt so content and secure with Harry so close… and quite a lot aroused. Oh no, what if Harry's awake? What would he do if he woke up with my arm around him? Panicking Draco, jumped up and ran into the loo. Furiously he scrubbed water at his fevered face, he had to get a grip, Harry would be disgusted if he knew he'd been touching him in his sleep and thinking about doing even more.

Draco vowed to stay away from the other boy, he could not have anyone know that he was thinking about boys that way, he was a Malfoy, Malfoy's were hot blooded men that married beautiful women and had powerful heirs. The next morning Draco had his full on standoffish mask in place and other than a haughty remark at his two companions, ignored everyone.

The week carried on in a similar manner, Snape was present as little as possible, claiming cabin fever, and Harry disappeared into his book world. Draco flounced around with even more attitude than normal, and all three of them got entirely sick of each other. Draco was barely letting himself sleep at night, afraid he might touch Harry again, so he took to napping on Severus's bed most of the day, whilst Harry read on theirs.

Snape was the only one to notice that Harry would look hurt when Draco outright ignored him and Snape didn't think it was fair. He couldn't see why Draco was so annoyed with the other boy, until he started to think maybe that was the problem, Draco wasn't angry at all, he was avoiding contact with him, but why? Up until recently Draco had appeared to start liking the boy, he tried to help around the house, he followed him around everywhere, he was always asking Harry's opinion on things, and he had never seen Draco care about what other people thought. An idea struck Severus then, but it seemed so impossible he nearly dismissed it straight away, but then again. What if that was the problem, did Draco like Harry too much? It would explain a lot of his recent behaviour. Snape knew that he needed to confront his godson, it wasn't fair on Harry to keep getting the cold shoulder.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	10. Chapter 10

Snape let out a sigh of relief, being back at the house. They could spend time in separate rooms again and he could distance himself from the adolescent drama unfolding around him.

That reminded him, he still needed to talk with Draco. Harry had putted off to, no doubt, sort out the food situation in the kitchen, leaving it easier for Severus to follow Draco up the stairs and perch on the end of his bed whilst he unpacked.

"Draco, I have noticed of late, your certain, cold behaviour towards Mr Potter, am I to believe something has transpired to upset you?"

Draco pointedly ignored the question, shrugging and continuing to shove clothing back into his drawers.

"Very well, if you're not willing to explain what is wrong, allow me to share my theory".

Draco made no objection so he continued "I believe, you have become quite close to Harry recently"

Snape paused waiting for an answer, Draco had stopped unpacking but was giving nothing away.

"I think, you've started to like Harry, as more than a friend, and this has concerned you".

Draco was frowning slightly and looking anywhere but at Snape,

"Instead of being mature about this and talking about it, you have decided, instead, to pretend the boy you're lusting after, no longer exists" Draco snorted at this but Snape held his hand up telling Draco to let him continue, "in the hopes your feelings for him, will also go away".

Draco sighed and flopped down, backwards, onto the bed, covering his face with his hands "and let me hazard a guess, it is not helping one bit".

Draco's sigh turned into a painful sob, "it's just getting worse".

Snape was brought up short by the anguished sobbing of his godson, Draco never outright cried, he was prince of the crocodile tears but Snape had never seen him sound so, genuinely, upset. Draco's tear streaked face peaked up from between his fingers,

"you can't tell Harry, he won't want anything to do with me if he knows what I think about him".

Draco sat up and lent against his godfather's chest, Snape awkwardly wrapped an arm around the boy, who really was getting too broad in the shoulders to call that anymore.

"I keep dreaming about him, Sev…. not normal dreams"

"who says what's normal anymore, Draco? if it feels right to you, why are you so adamant that it is wrong?"

"cos boys shouldn't want to kiss other boys" Draco groaned re-covering his face.

"You know when I got in a fight with that Nathan boy?"

Snape nodded grimly, not wanting to remember that particular fiasco,

"he was interested in Harry, l couldn't get over anyone else wanting him. When I saw them kissing I was so angry, but then it was, kind of eye-opening to see two boys together, kissing, I'd never even thought about it".

Snape was a little shocked at this piece of information, he thought back to the night being described, Harry blind drunk and Draco bruised and bloodied from a fight he wouldn't explain the reason behind. He had no idea it was down to jealousy.

Also, was Draco that dumb? Harry had kissed another boy and yet he was still adamant Harry would be disgusted at his own advances.

Snape had been silent too long so Draco carried on his sobbing monologue, "I can't stop looking at him, how he looked that night, he's so beautiful, errr Sev, what am I going to do, I can't just keep being around him and not do anything, I'll go mad!"

Snape let out an inward sigh of relief, if Draco was being this dramatic, it must mean an end to the waterworks.

"The only advice I can give, is to talk to him about this"

Draco made to argue this suggestion but Snape's expression warned against it,

"Draco, you are nearly 16, you, in this respect only, are vastly more mature than Harry. I'd wager he's never really been entangled in any sort of romantic situation before, and therefore it falls to you to take the lead here, as Harry is certainly not going to be doing anything about it"

"Of course Harry wouldn't do anything about it, he has no idea I feel like this and he, as sure as hades, doesn't feel anything like that about me".

"I wouldn't be so sure, he may be completely clueless of his own attraction to you Draco, but it doesn't mean it isn't there, like I said, he has a lot less experience in this area".

Draco was hesitantly smiling at the possibility "but if he has no idea how he feels, he'll still reject me if I tell him I fancy him, it won't make any difference unless he knows how he feels too".

Snape could only be glad that he hadn't been involved with any lady-friends for a while, and this kind of messy situation was left to his teenage wards.

"I believe you may need to borrow some of his Gryffindor courage and find a way to convince him of the mutual attraction" Snape smirked as realisation dawned on the teenager's face "kiss him?" Draco squeaked.

Snape decided he'd had enough of the teenage angst and stood to take his leave,

"It wouldn't be amiss, I am sure. Now, as long as you have stopped your moping, I advise you to speak to Harry sooner rather than later, your behaviour, has quite upset the boy".

With that Snape decided he'd accomplished his good deed for the day and deserved some alone time, brewing.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	11. Chapter 11

Draco felt nervous, he was very nearly shaking, how do you approach a guy who used to hate you, who is now tentatively your best mate, and tell him you would very much like to shove your tongue down his throat? No, it couldn't be done.

After Sev had left, Draco had steeled his bravery and went to find his friend. Harry was busy chopping vegetables in the kitchen, Draco knew offering to help wouldn't be taken well after his last few culinary disasters, so he perched on a stool at the counter instead.

Harry looked pleased but slightly confused that Draco was choosing to be near him again.

"What you doing?" Draco sing songed,

"brewing up a deadly elixir, to poison Snape" Harry winked and Draco chuckled, "soup?"

"Well done Draco, vegetable stew, but close enough". Draco smiled at the praise, without being a bit offended by Harry's patronising tone. To his mind recognising a meal from its uncooked ingredients was a feat of genius.

"Want to head down to the park after?" Draco asked,

"Sure, have the others asked you?" Draco certainly hoped not, he wanted to have Harry to himself this afternoon.

"Er no" he hedged "actually, let's go somewhere else, we can walk through the woods to that hidden bird hut thing"

"alright, great" Harry nodded, Draco loved that Harry would agree to anything he wanted.

"I'll ring Grace and see if anyone else is free". Crap, Draco needed an excuse to stop him, he needed Harry alone.

"Don't bother, I think she said they've all got a mats test and'll be busy for a while" Draco lied

"Oh, fine, just you and me then" damn right it is, Draco thought.

After lunch, Harry packed a knapsack of supplies, they donned their hiking boots, and the two boys headed out. Draco didn't miss the significant look he got from Snape as he left. They chatted and played as they trekked towards their spot, Draco was bracing himself for his planned conversation once they'd arrived.

About a mile to go they heard the voices of other youths and Draco cursed, please don't be anyone we know.

"Anna!" Harry yelled, Anna and her two brothers cycled into view in the clearing and dismounted.

"Harry, Draco, haven't seen you in like forever!" Anna enthused

"bleedin' termites wasn't it, we had to stay out of town" Harry answered "I thought you were all busy with a maths test?"

The three they'd stumbled upon looked confused "nah, middle of term, no tests just yet, thank god" Harry shrugged, to Draco's relief, not seeming to think anything of it.

They carried on to the hideout and shared Harry's snacks, chatting about what the other two had missed whilst at the hotel. Draco tried to keep calm and join in the joviality but kept glancing at his watch wondering when he'd get his alone time to talk. After a couple of hours Jed suggested "let's see if the others are at the park, we can go meet them". Harry perched on the front of Jed's bike and Draco on Anna's as they rode back through the woods. Draco tried not to get jealous of Jed, being that close to Harry. Once at the park, the nattering began again and Draco hardly got to share one word with Harry. Jed and Anna dropped them back that evening, after stopping at the chippy to grab themselves and Snape something for supper.

Over dinner, Draco felt too awkward, under Snape's scrutiny, to approach any meaningful talk with Harry, knowing Snape was busy appraising the situation and trying to figure out what had happened. After Snape had dropped several hints, asking about any interesting conversations they might have had, Draco gave in and told him about what a lovely day they'd had catching up with all their friends. That seemed to give Snape the message.

After dinner Harry claimed to be knackered and disappeared for a shower. Draco flopped down on the sofa in defeat.

"It is useless Sev, the universe will not let me be alone with the guy for more than 5 seconds!"

Snape patted him on the shoulder on his way past,

"Try again tomorrow, Draco" Snape soothed and made his way upstairs.

No, he did not want to spend a whole night tossing and turning over this, he would speak to Harry now whether he liked it or not.

When Harry meandered out the bathroom and padded across to his room, he was greeted with a pent up looking Draco waiting for him.

"Erm, good evening, Draco?" Harry asked questioningly,

"Harry, sit down, we need to talk about some… er some stuff that is.. that I or… I mean we, maybe"

Draco gave up on words and pushed Harry down by the shoulders onto the end of the bed, Draco perched next to him.

"Can I at least put on some clothes first?" Harry gestured to his naked chest underneath his loosely tied dressing gown "I wasn't exactly expecting company"

"Nope" Draco demanded, "I really need to say some things and all day, I've tried to get you by yourself and I have run out of patience"

"Right, okay go ahead then" Harry answered nervously, what on earth had gotten Draco so agitated?

Draco paused, here was his moment, just say the words, I like you, I want to kiss you, I want to touch your…. Nope that wouldn't do. Draco froze, why hadn't he thought about what to say? He'd spent all day trying to speak to Harry but he hadn't spent any time working out what words he wanted to speak.

He sat there gormlessly looking at Harry as the other boy patiently waited for whatever strange episode Draco was experiencing to pass.

How long have we been sat here? Draco thought, it felt like hours and he still had no idea how to express himself to the boy. Crap, crap, crap, should he just run out the room and deny this ever happened? Draco bounced up off the bed, planning to do just that, what he hadn't planned for was Harry jumping up too and as he paced forward towards the door, they collided. Draco barely thought, he just grabbed Harry by the top of his arms and shoved his mouth against the other's.

Harry gasped in shock but Draco just moved his arms around Harry's back, pulling him up close as he thrust his tongue against Harry's moving lips. Draco groaned at the taste, nothing like the girls he had kissed, Harry's lips were soft but also very firm and Draco felt them mold perfectly against his.

Both of them were breathing heavily now, Draco worried things would go too far, so he cupped Harry's face and gentled the kiss to light nips and licks at Harry's willing mouth.

They both opened their eyes together and smiled. Draco leaning down, rested his forehead against Harry's.

"Was that what you wanted to tell me, Dray?" they were both grinning madly now, Draco ecstatic that Harry had kissed back, that he wasn't running screaming from the room.

"Something along those lines" Draco replied, going for, what he hoped was a, seductive purr. Going on impulse he carried on, in for an inch… "that and, I liked sharing a bed with you, I want to keep doing so"

Draco knew that if he asked something of Harry, he was unlikely to be denied.

"Did you now? Is that your way of saying, 'Harry please may I sleep in here with you?'"

"Nope, that was me saying, I sleep here now".

Harry laughed and as a sign of agreement walked over to the side of the bed and folded back the duvet. Draco nipped out to change into pyjama bottoms and when he came back Harry, dressed in his usual bed attire, checkered cotton bottoms and a ridiculously baggy T-shirt over the top, was already tucked up in bed.

Draco paused grinning at the sight,

"don't tell me, you have a side of the bed and I'm in it?" Harry joked

"I expect you on my side of the bed, so then I can do this" Draco launched himself at Harry, wrapping him up tight in his arms.

Harry laughed and nuzzled into the warm embrace. Neither boy had slept so well for a long time.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	12. Chapter 12

Snape had grown to be considerate of the extra resting hours required by the teenage boy's he lived with, but staying in bed past 11, was pushing it; plus Harry knew how to make proper coffee, way better than he could.

Therefore at 11:15, the next morning, Snape stamped back upstairs to rouse his sleeping charges. He knocked lightly at Draco's door, not wanting to intrude if he was still upset about yesterday. When no reply came, he knocked again calling out his name. This was ridiculous. Well if the boy was hiding in there, he'd have told him to piss off by now, so it's probably safe, Snape thought as he slowly opened Draco's door.

Panic was his first thought, as he saw Draco's unslept in bed. Snape ran around the room ascertaining Draco's belongings were all still there and Draco had not run away after failing to woo Harry. Merlin, he shouldn't have encouraged him, maybe Harry did reject him. Harry! The thought came to him, he'll have to know something. Snape was barging through the other boy's door without another thought of privacy. The sight he found brought him up short.

Harry was curled up, fast asleep with a more content, peaceful expression than he'd ever seen him wear. Draco was gazing dreamily down at the boy in his arms whilst running his fingers through Harry's messy hair. Upon Snape's untimely arrival, Draco glanced up and shushed him.

"Draco" Snape angrily hissed "do you have any idea how worried I was when I found your room empty this morning?"

"sorry Sev guess you missed it in the morning bulletin" Draco cheekily replied.

Snape was not in the mood and was about to rip into his godson, when Harry stirred,

"Mmmh, morning Dray" Harry wriggled around getting comfier.

Snape cleared his throat loudly and Harry jerked back awake,

"Snape! what are you doing in here?" he yelped,

"Oh nothing, just tracking down errant youths who decide to give me a heart attack first thing in the morning"

Harry looked confused for a second, then "crap, you must have thought he'd been taken or something, soz' I didn't really think about that when we decided to sleep together".

"Sleep together?" Snape raised an eyebrow at the pair, were teenager's morals really that loose these days? Inwardly he groaned when he realised it was going to fall to him, to have the "talk" with his young charges.

"No Sev, nothing like that, we were just asleep" Draco answered, Harry looked a little confused, Draco lent and whispered in the boy's ear and Harry turned beet red.

"No no no, we didn't have sex, I'm not ready for that" Harry looked mortified at what he'd just admitted "well I know you have before and I do like you, it's just… just" Harry was chewing his lip nervously, waiting for Draco's reaction,

"Harry, calm down. I don't want to do anything you don't" Harry grinned in relief, and the boys shared a kiss.

Snape thought it about time he took his leave, reassured their innocence was still intact, Harry's at least.

"On that note, I'll be off, no more lounging around in bed today boys, I expect you in the library, washed, dressed and fed, in an hour".

After a day filled with studying and longing looks across their desks, Harry and Draco finally found themselves alone and free from work. Without the anger and excited energy of the previous evening, Draco was finding it hard to initiate anything with the other boy. Now he knew he had permission to touch, he felt self-conscious about doing so.

Harry was feeling a bit on edge at Draco's awkward behaviour too, was the fickle Draco having second thoughts? One glance to his left and Harry felt more at ease. Draco was surreptitiously scooting closer across the sofa towards Harry, Harry continued to channel flick and pretended not to notice. Draco tentatively reached out to Harry's free hand, which was handily left lying open in the space between them. When their fingers finally brushed, Draco felt tingles spread up his arm, especially when Harry took his cue and entwined them. Draco glanced up into Harry's wide-blown eyes and, taking that as all the encouragement he needed, cupped Harry's head and brought their lips together.

Harry dropped the remote, settling on whatever channel he had left it on, and threw himself against Draco's lips. They moaned against each other, each shifting on the sofa to manoeuvre themselves closer, but with locked lips it became an exercise in futility. Harry's practical nature took over and he pulled slightly away, he pushed Draco against the back of the sofa, and clambered up into his lap, Draco smirked at Harry's pushy behaviour, but soon overcame his shock to wrap his arms tightly around his armful of Harry, and continue the kissing.

Minutes and minutes passed, the boys seemingly locked together at the mouth, hands were running up to caress through hair, running over arms and up torsos. Unconsciously, Draco shifted Harry's weight off his legs and into his arms before, lifting and turning the boy to lie him down, he then settled himself on top, holding his weight on his elbows either side of Harry's head, while Harry shifted his knees to allow the other boy to nestle down in between.

Harry was elated at the new position, he felt so secure, covered every inch by the strong, solid body a top his. Draco wanted to touch Harry more but was wary of scaring the other boy off, he settled for moving his lips down to nuzzle at his jaw. When Harry sighed at the touch, Draco's confidence grew so he moved on to kiss at his neck, down his throat and around to the area behind his ear, Harry tilted his head to the side to encourage him and Draco was just plucking up the courage to move onto Harry's ears, when Harry yelped and tried to squirm out from underneath him.

"I leave the room for one hour and what do I come back to? Teenage boys canoodling on my sofa". Snape threw his hands up in mock exasperation and went to fold himself into his arm chair, book in hand.

Harry and Draco righted themselves and started straightening out their clothes, both, Snape noted, looking highly flushed and out of breath. Harry cleared his throat and turned up the television, playing some muggle drama that involved a lot of yelling. Draco cast one last longing glance at Harry then excused himself for his shower.

Harry lasted another 40 minutes pretending to watch the show and making small talk with Snape, before stretching and yawning and trotting off to bed. Snape was amused to see Harry was still a little flustered, he'd sat there nearly an hour like that? Poor boy, Snape sympathised.

Harry and Draco, wanting to avoid any more, Snape centric, kissing interruptions, began a new routine. The day filled with fleeting touches and seductive smirks, the night full of intensive making out sessions. Draco learnt to map out the areas of Harry's body that were most sensitive, especially the area behind his ears, although he always squirmed and blushed when Draco put his ear lobes in his mouth, Draco knew, touching Harry there got him very excited.

Harry had at first been reluctant to remove his top during these sessions, complaining about how scrawny he was in comparison to Draco, but a few touches to the area, managed to persuade him to shuck his shirt more often.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	13. Chapter 13

One, chilly, February morning, Snape plonked down a small cardboard box, on the breakfast table before he tucked into his eggs. Harry and Draco waited for an explanation but Snape seemed content to leave it at that.

"Are you going to tell us or wait for us to ask?"

Snape sighed as if he really didn't want to be asked.

"As I am sure you both know, there comes a time, when young adults, such as yourselves, feel the need for, intimacy, with other people"

Draco nodded in confusion until he glanced at Harry who had chosen to inhale his bacon at that point. "Crap, Harry" Draco rushed around to whack his boyfriend on the back.

"What?" Harry coughed out, when he could breathe again.

"Intimate relations Harry, you must be aware" Harry's skin turned an alarming beetroot colour, "what's this got to do with that box?" Draco asked.

"I may have just turned 36 Draco, which in your eye's is probably ancient, but I am still fully aware of what young men are likely to get up to and the need they will have for these, muggle devices" with that, Snape returned to his breakfast.

"Condoms?" Harry squeaked "precisely" Snape acknowledged.

"Wait, holdup, what are they?" Draco asked, never having heard that weird word before

Harry spluttered and searched for words "well you see Draco, you put it on your erm…. Thing, and it like stops the…. You know getting a girl pregnant"

Snape rolled his eyes "Coherent as ever, Potter"

Draco turned to him, "why on earth have you given them to us, we're not exactly planning on knocking anybody up?" Snape leveled them a withering glare,

"this morning, I believe it is time to have a short interlude from defensive study"

"YES!" both boys enthused, but that got them a warning brow raise.

"Instead we shall be learning about the birds and the bees" Snape couldn't help smirking at the boy's horrified faces.

After a morning that had left all three of them red in the face, Snape handed over the book he had bought. He'd purchased some muggle literature to advice himself about gay relationships, a lot was irrelevant to wizards, but it was still informative enough for Snape to lecture his charges about. Harry seemed reluctant to take it, but Draco near, snatched it out of his hands "ooh cool" he said rifling through.

Draco made no show of hiding when he was reading the book, he spent their study breaks, evenings and most mealtimes, unashamedly gazing intently at its pages.

On the day Draco turned 16, they spent the afternoon with their friends, messing around in the park, despite the chilly weather. Then Harry made Draco his new favourite, lasagne, for dinner and afterwards they had cake, Snape even spoke the words to Happy Birthday while Harry sang. Draco had insisted he wanted to help make the cake. So, the day before, despite Harry wanting it to be a surprise, they spent the afternoon baking. The final result was edible if a tad over decorated, when Draco got carried away with the icing.

That evening Harry waited nervously on the bed for Draco to finish his shower. He'd already bought Draco a few presents but he wanted to make the day extra special for him.

Draco arrived back, loosely draped in his bathrobe. Harry scooted to the edge of the bed to pull Draco towards him.

"Eager?" Draco smirked

He lent down to kiss Harry, giving Harry the prefect opportunity to reach forward and undo the tie on Draco's bath robe.

They'd never been fully naked together before and Draco was ecstatic about the development, he pushed Harry backwards, pulling and tugging at Harry's own pyjamas.

Body against body, skin against skin, the boys rolled around, reveling in the sensations and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Draco thought he'd never been given a better present, which was impressive, seen as, for his 10th Birthday his father had bought him a flying pony.

The boy's slept that night in a tangled and sweaty mess but neither bothered to move from the warm cocoon they'd made for themselves.

A/N: This story is also being posted on AO3, under the same username. The plot's nearly exactly the same but with more adult themes and language, I don't like putting stuff like that on here, with there being no age restriction. But if explicit is your thing, feel free to read it over there instead.


	14. Chapter 14

Warning for mentions of past child abuse

The summer snuck up on them that year, in between reading about defensive spells and strategy, Snape had them doing strength training in the back garden. Draco excelled at lifting weights, bragging about his Viking ancestry, whereas Harry was much better at agility, ducking and diving over the obstacle courses Snape set out for them.

In the 10 months they'd been there, they'd heard very little from the outside world, Harry would have found it very easy to think his last 4 years in the magical world had been a dream and he'd always lived as a muggle. Draco and Snape were also settling in to a life without magic more easily than they'd have believed. The bits of news they did receive were always brief but concerning.

Hermione wrote that Dumbledore had been forced by the "ministry" AKA Voldemort to separate Muggle born students from the others into a separate house. Ron said, known death eaters kept turning up at the school, claiming to be ministry appointed inspectors and forced the pure-blood students to practise curses on the muggle borns. Sirius wrote explaining that there was nothing Dumbledore could do to stop them, as he'd be replaced as headmaster if he didn't comply and then the school would be well and truly unsafe. The twins wrote that they'd invented a spray to turn someone's clothes invisible, at least there was always that, Harry thought sarcastically as he flicked through the month's correspondence.

Draco could feel the tension coming off Harry, when they received any post. He knew the other boy was anxious to go back and help, but he knew, as well as, Snape and Dumbledore, that until Voldemort could no longer trace them, Harry was as good as dead, if he returned to the magical world.

Every week or so, Harry would casually ask Snape how his potion research was going, Snape's responses were getting gradually shorter and sharper. "I do not know, Harry, as I cannot ask you to reveal your magical signature, I cannot see if it has been successfully masked by the potion, can I?".

Draco took that to mean that his research wasn't going great.

He was trying his best to be a reassuring boyfriend, but that wasn't really in his skill set. He tried to help around the house, but turned all the washing pink somehow.

He tried to distract Harry and take his mind off things, but that got him a "Bloody hell Draco, do you ever think with your brain? We are not making out again Draco, my lips are getting chapped!".

He also tried to come up with a solution to their problem, some way of building a magically impermeable barrier around them, so they could practise inside it and have other people's magic around them without it alerting Voldemort. This got him a terse "don't you think if one of them existed Draco, that we wouldn't already be making use of it and not be stuck here?" from Snape.

In the end, Draco decided he would plan Harry something special for his birthday to cheer him up. Even if Draco thought, spending the whole day in bed counted as special, Snape told him he was going to have to try harder than that.

Harry woke on the morning of his 16th Birthday in the warm, and slightly sweaty, embrace of his boyfriend. He contemplated how much had changed since his last birthday, that had been the day Uncle Vernon had beaten him to within an inch of his life, he was pretty sure he had been unconscious at the time he actually turned 15. If you'd told him a year ago that he would be living with his two most hated Slytherins, of the ones he knew personally, Voldie and the death eaters didn't count, he would have probably have run away screaming. Now he couldn't imagine a better way to spend his birthday. Sure, he missed his friends and his godfather and he missed magic, but he was safe and cared for and for the first time in his life he had someone to call his own.

Draco roused and leaned over for a morning breathy kiss,

"morning birthday boy, want your present?" as he said present, he leaned down to suck on Harry's neck.

Harry groaned and pressed into the touch, before jumping out of bed "nope, I want pancakes" and ran off.

Draco harrumphed in frustration but soon realised if he kept Harry sweet, he was more likely to get to continue the neck sucking later, so he bounded off to the kitchen.

All their friends came around and they had a marathon board game session, Draco managed to not even pout when he lost everything, due to his lack of knowing the rules. When Rori pulled out a chess set and Anna proclaimed they had to play in pairs cos' she was clueless, Draco smirked with glee. He and Harry trounced everyone, Harry looked a bit embarrassed they were so much better, but Draco just gloated, nobody could best a Slytherin at chess.

When everyone had left, Draco invited Harry out into the garden, where he had made their dinner, the only thing he could, which was salad. Harry beamed though, happy that Draco had made the effort and Draco beamed because he could only imagine how Harry would thank him later.

Snape joined them and they finished off the cake that Anna had brought round, after Draco had begged her, he'd known he couldn't manage one without Harry. They sat outside long enough for the sun to set and cast the back garden into orange and pink shades.

"You happy, Harry?" Draco asked glancing at where his boyfriend was lounging back in his chair,

"yeah, I think I am" Harry sighed, sounding blissed out.

"Would anything make you happier?"

Harry looked up at that "What, willing to kill Voldie for me and rid the world of evil?" Harry laughed

"You know I would if I could"

Harry stopped laughing after hearing his serious tone and came over to crouch by Draco's chair.

"I know Draco, I care about you too"

Draco smiled at the proclamation and started to smooth his fingers through Harry's hair, encouraging the other boy to lay his head in his lap. Both boys stayed like that until the sun fully set and the garden fell into darkness.

Draco lent down to whisper in Harry's ear "come to bed Harry, your birthday's not over just yet"

Harry felt a shiver run through his body and they quickly headed back to the house. Once in their bedroom, Draco set about making sure Harry had a Birthday he'd always remember. If he couldn't, fulfill Harry's wish, to kill the evil bastard for him, then he'd make sure Harry could forget his worries, at least for a little while.

Afterwards as they lay together, slowly dozing off, Draco murmured "I care more about you than anything" Harry sighed contentedly "I'll always look after you, I promise" with one last kiss to the top of Harry's head, they fell asleep.

A few weeks later it was Anna and Jed's joint birthday, they'd been assured they didn't have to dress up this time, but that didn't stop Draco, dragging Harry back to the shops. Harry didn't mind too much, some of the clothes he'd bought last year were too small now. Once he'd grabbed a new pair of jeans and some shirts, Draco dragged him to the formal wear department, where Draco's eyes eagerly fell on a deep red shirt, he knew with Harry's tan skin and dark hair, it would look fantastic.

Harry groaned, "I'll look like a bloody post box"

"no you won't" Draco said, completely disregarding him, "it'll suit your complexion, perfectly".

Harry harrumphed but bought the shirt.

"Oh, it does look quite nice" Harry admitted when they were getting ready later,

"quite nice!" Draco said sounding insulted, "you look smoking"

Harry blushed, he knew he looked nothing compared to Draco, who was wearing the grey trousers again, but this time with a black shirt, pulled open at the collar. Draco had grown another few inches taller and broader across the chest, becoming the epitome of suave manliness. Harry wouldn't admit it, but he loved how burly Draco was becoming.

Snape met them at the door with a stern warning not to get into the state that they had last time "yes Sev" they both mumbled on their way past.

"And that also means no punch-ups, Draco!" was yelled down the path at them.

This time the party was much more enjoyable, Draco kept a possessive arm around Harry most of the night and there were no more rounds of spin-the-bottle. By the time people started leaving, Harry was feeling pretty squiffy, but in a good way.

Draco insisted, on the walk back, that he was "S'not dunk" which caused Harry to laugh so hard, he fell over into someone's bushes. This lead to Draco, finally, reciprocating Harry's piggy back, arriving home with marginally more dignity than last time.

Once inside, Draco refused to put Harry down, pulling him into his arms until he could throw him down on the bed "gonna tear that sexy shirt off you" Draco growled.

Harry yelped, scared for the longevity of his, now favourite, piece of clothing. He leaped off the bed, dodging around the room and trying to wriggle out of his clothes before Draco got to them. Draco picked up the chase and ran around in circles, after him.

Eventually, Draco caught him around the waist and hauled him back onto the bed. They ended up in a giggling, heap on the mattress, with considerably fewer clothes on, than before.

Later that night, when they'd drifted off. Harry found himself dreaming, pleasantly, of his and Draco's earlier escapades. He was floating on a blissful wave. Until someone started yelling at him, screaming with rage, his uncle was on him, his great weight keeping him down, his fists flying at his face, until it wasn't his uncle. Dudley's piggy face was, suddenly, in his and that sour breath was getting closer to him. Harry screamed, kicking out as he struggled to get away.

Draco awoke and panicked, trying to hold Harry still to stop his wild thrashing, but that wasn't helping. Harry shoved him away and scrambled up to the corner of the bed, wild eyes shifting around the room in alarm.

Snape, ever alert, immediately heard Harry's scream. He threw his bed clothes off and ran to the boy's room.

He stopped when he heard muffled voices instead of screaming, maybe it was nothing, maybe a drunken falling. He turned, to head back to his room, but paused, he knew Harry now and he knew he wouldn't make that noise for nothing, in fact it sounded like the scream he had heard when he legilimised him… Snape rushed back to their door and knocked urgently,

"Boys? Can I come in a moment?"

Grrr, Draco fumed, now was not a good time. He'd just got Harry calmed down, back in his arms, after apologizing for pinning him like that, he felt awful that he'd made Harry's nightmare worse. He soothed his hands down Harry's sides and Harry reassured him he was fine, just startled.

Snape knocking was not convenient,

"can it wait till morning? kind of busy right now" Draco grit out, go away, go away, go away he thought.

"I'd feel better if I saw Harry for a moment"

"I'm okay" Harry called out, but damn it, his voice cracked and that was not going to reassure his godfather.

"Harry? I'm going to come in now"

"NO!" they both yelled at once, neither having bothered with pyjamas that night.

Harry grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around himself before scuttling to the door.

"Hey what's up?" he asked in a falsely chirpy voice that Snape saw right through,

"Are you okay?" Snape asked in a hushed, trying to be soothing voice.

"Mm hm, great" Harry tried again just as unconvincingly.

"Draco, please excuse us a moment" Snape said before pulling Harry into the spare room.

Seeing Harry flinch at his touch, Snape got angrier at his godson, what had he done now?

"Harry sit down"

"Look I really am ok, promise, just a misunderstanding"

Well that was a bit more convincing, Snape thought "Would you care to explain what was misunderstood?"

Harry gulped and looked down at his lap,

Were those tears in his eyes? He was going to hex his godson into next week... when he got his magic back, damn it "Harry, did he hurt you?"

Harry shook his head "he didn't mean to make it worse, just a nightmare, I overreacted really, I should get back, he probably feels like crap now"

"Harry what was an accident, what did Draco do?"

At Harry's ashamed look, Snape drew himself up "right, leave him to me, you should sleep here tonight, I will get you some pyjamas"

"No, Sev, no I'm not sleeping in here, I'm staying with Draco he was trying to help, I promise, he would never hurt me, I trust him completely".

At Harry's sincere tone, Snape stopped his warpath,

"alright" he nodded in acquiesce, "just don't let him push you around"

"I know that, Sev, I do trust him".

When he took Harry back to his room, he beckoned to Draco to come and have a word, Draco looked utterly miserable. He curled up on the spare bed for his turn, arms wrapped around his legs, chin resting on his knees.

"What happened this time, Draco?"

"I think, Harry was having a bad dream, he was thrashing and murmuring, I tried to wake him up but he kept flinching away, and then, I.. I just made things worse"

"And how did you manage to upset him so?"

"Oh merlin, was he really upset?" Draco dropped his head into his hands, "I was just trying to comfort him, I was going to hold him, but he trashed away and instead of letting go, I clung on…. I was basically pinning him down, oh crap. He said not to worry, that he overreacted, but was that just to placate me?" Draco's watery eyes looked up to meet his godfather's.

"Hmm" Snape thought, Harry had told him the same thing, maybe his panic was not due to Draco's actions at all "no, I do not believe he was simply placating you" Snape laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, "perhaps the incident affected him more than I thought"

"What?" Draco asked in confusion,

Oh brilliant, Snape thought sarcastically, note to self, in future avoid having these kinds of conversation whilst sleep deprived."What is it? Sev, tell me"

"Do you recall the circumstances around Harry's untimely arrival at Hogwarts last summer?"

Draco nodded, wondering where this was headed then shot up in horror "you said he had been beaten up by his relatives and and…" Draco bunched his into fists, "I just grabbed him and held him down, while he was probably reliving the whole thing... What was done to these scumbags?"

"I believe Sirius Black, saw to them"

"remind me to thank him some day" Draco muttered.

"Draco couldn't wait any more, he wanted to go back and hold Harry, he headed out the door,

"I would not mention this to Harry directly, I think it would do him better to choose when he wishes to open up about his time with the muggles. These type of scars, often run deep"

As Draco slipped into bed, wrapping himself around Harry's, slumbering form, he vowed, to always protect him and never let anyone hurt him again. He blinked back his tears and buried his nose in the comforting smell of Harry's neck.


	15. Chapter 15

Summer turned to Winter and the Winter dragged on, with little news. The boys spent their days, begrudgingly, learning about defensive spells and honing their fitness whilst Snape grew more and more frustrated with his potion research. He thought he had the finished product, but without any safe way to test it, it was useless to them, plus he missed the sense of satisfaction at seeing another of his creation's a success. All three of them felt at an impasse, until one morning in early March.

"Post post post" Draco sing songed, as he heard the clatter of the letter box.

Harry was hot on his heels, desperate for news of his friends.

"Oh, it's actually from Dumbledore this time"

Harry frowned at that, he never wrote to them directly. Harry leant over Draco's shoulder to read, after a few minutes they turned to face each other, any joviality gone.

"We better get Sev"

Draco trotted off upstairs and Harry went to prepare the strongest cup of tea he could, as Snape was still stringent about not letting them have access to anything stronger.

"They should be with us within a week" Harry finished off,

Snape looked thoughtful and not as annoyed as Harry would have thought, at soon to be having to take charge of another two Gryffindors.

"wonder where they've got everybody holed up?" Draco mused

"the underground" Snape answered, "it does say in the letter"

"yes but where underground?" Draco pushed on, Harry just shrugged.

"Did neither of you ever pay attention, in a history of magic?" both looked sheepish and shook their heads, Snape sighed "there is an entire city, build under the area, the muggles term the lake district, it was built as a refuse during the war with the giants"

"oh, so everybody from Hogwarts has fled there?"

"everyone from Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, I imagine everyone on our side of the war",

"wow" Said Harry "must be a big place" Snape raised an eyebrow, as if to say, obviously.

5 days later, Harry and Draco walked down to meet a very weary looking Ron and Hermione at the bus stop.

"Harry" Hermione cried and they tearfully embraced, Ron roughly thumped him on the back, then nodded at Draco.

Draco put on his most superior sneer "Gryffindor's" he said with a haughty incline to his head, Harry laughed at his obvious teasing but Ron and Hermione just stood there in shock. The Draco Malfoy they were familiar with would hardly have offered them a greeting at all, if he had, it would have been an underhanded dig at one, or more likely, both of them.

"Shall we get going?" Harry asked, offering to take Hermione's bag, but as she handed it over, Draco grabbed it and strapped it to his back instead.

Ron and Hermione shared another incredulous look.

"How is everyone?" Harry asked and Hermione launched into a play by play account of their year a part.

They sounded as if they'd had a much tougher go of it than he and Draco had and Harry felt instantly guilty.

"What did old voldie do to get you two to join us here at camp muggle?"

Ron did a double take at Draco so calmly saying the man's name, then explained about how his dad had found out in the department of records that Hermione's signature had been stolen too. They suspected Voldemort thought she was with Harry so by tracking them he'd find the boy-who-lived. Dumbledore had sent them to the no-magic zone, to protect the location of the underground.

As they trudged up the gravel path to their home, Ron let out a groan,

"oh it's all so muggle, there really is no magic around, is there?"

"sorry weasley, you're going to have to learn the difference between the TV and microwave now too" Draco chuckled

"are those words even English?" Ron asked his girlfriend who just rolled her eyes in reply.

Once inside Snape met them,

"Professor" Hermione greeted politely,

"Snape" grunted Ron.

"You can put your things in the spare room, I'm sure Harry will show you the way" Snape began to walk off, but with Hermione, things were never that simple,

"Oh are there 4 bedrooms? I thought only 3" she queried

"Yes there are three rooms" Snape agreed drily,

"Then how is one spare?" she looked confused.

"Are you opposed to sharing with Mr Weasley, Miss Granger?" Snape asked

"No, no not at all" Hermione blushed

"Then what is the problem?"

"well, there are three rooms"

"correct" Snape said sarcastically

"your room, professor" Snape nodded "Harry's room and Draco's room, that is three where is the spare?"

"Oh I see where your confusion lies, yes there is my room and Harry's and Draco's room and then the spare, or formerly Draco's room"

"Oh, but I wouldn't want to kick anyone out of their room" Hermione fretted as she turned back to the boys.

"You wouldn't be" Harry reassured.

Hermione hated not understanding so Harry took pity "Hermione, me and Draco share a room"

"But why?" she implored, Draco had had enough and took hold of Harry's hand.

Hermione's eyes followed the movement "Oh" she said as realisation dawned on her face.

"What, what is it?" Ron asked, not really keeping up "what's wrong with your hand mate?" he asked looking at where Draco was holding it.

"Ronald" Hermione hissed "Harry and Draco are together now"

"together as in…. together like?... nah I don't get it"

"together like this" Draco smirked and grabbed Harry's head bringing their lips together.

When they broke a part, Ron was a bright red colour and was stammering under his breath.

"Any time today?" Snape butted in,

"Oh right" Harry grabbed Ron's bag from where he'd dropped it and Draco hauled up Hermione's "this way" Harry called and the other three followed him up the stairs, Draco pointing out the lounge and kitchen as they passed.

"That's the bathroom, library's behind us, the one at the end is Snape's and this one is yours" Harry said leading them into Draco's old room, which had sort of turned into their junk room.

Hermione settled back into her normal, muggle routine, and with her help Ron did too. If Ron had accidently scalded himself in the electric shower, dry-boiled the kettle and nearly electrocuted himself by attempting to wash up the toaster, then it was all part of the muggle experience for him.

One morning, a few weeks later, Hermione had her head, buried, in the fridge,

"What the…." she asked in confusion as she rooted around, she could have sworn there was a whole punnet of grapes and one of blueberries in there yesterday,

"What is it Miss Granger?" the other early riser in the house asked.

"All the fruit has gone, I have nothing to go on my porridge"

"Ahr, our resident fruit bat, strikes again"

Hermione blinked in confusion. "Oh that's right!" she exclaimed slapping herself on the forehead, "Harry's always eating fruit, I can't believe I forgot all these things about my best friend".

Snape rolled his eyes, teenage girl's priorities, honestly. All though Snape shared in her annoyance, the only thing that lasted more than a day around here was citrus fruit, which Harry would normally leave a few days, then, in the absence of better offerings, would eat whilst making a bizarre scrunchy face at the sour taste. Draco had told him he thought it 'adorable' Snape just tried his best to steer their trolley away from the oranges in the supermarket.

Hermione still found the familiarity that Snape now shared with Harry a bit odd to watch. One day when they were doing laundry, Hermione noticed, with shock, that Harry casually went into Snape's room and grabbed his laundry hamper, before bringing it down to the washing room. As Harry sorted out the lights and darks, low and behold mostly darks.

Hermione squealed "you wash Professor Snape's pants?"

"Er yeah" Harry didn't see what the problem was

"But he's a teacher, you should never see a teacher's underwear"

He laughed at Hermione's strange rules, "these are exceptional circumstances 'Mione, besides Snape's are a hell of a lot less gross than Uncle Vernon's ever were".

What Harry had been doing with his Uncle's pants, Hermione didn't know, but she felt it might be rude to inquire about the undergarments of a man she had never met.

As Spring arrived, they ventured out to the park to meet with their friends. Hermione hit it off with Anna straight away, both talking away over the top of each other, but neither minding. Ron found common ground talking about chess with Rori.

Draco and Ron agreed to a tournament, Harry was intrigued to see the result, both boys being exceptionally good at the game. They also agreed that the winner should challenge Snape, as Draco informed them, he was unbeatable.

The next evening, they arranged for the tournament. Harry and Hermione went first and Harry won, then Harry and Rori played, Harry was shocked when he won that too, Draco must have been rubbing off on him.

Harry then played Ron and lost miserably. They decided to break for dinner before the proper games began, they ordered pizza and Snape didn't even moan at the absence of cutlery, Harry thought he might be rubbing off on him as well.

Then the board was set up for Ron and Draco... it was nearly Midnight by the time Draco called checkmate. Ron was gracious in defeat, impressed at the slytherin's skill. They decided to postpone playing Snape till the next day.

When the time came, Snape very easily beat Draco and everyone applauded in awe at his skill. Draco pouted at still not being able to beat his godfather.

Next time they met up at the park, Anna introduced them to her new boyfriend, Sean. He was 19 and had his own car and his family owned some stables, Hermione and Grace and even Harry a tiny bit, if he was honest, were quite taken with him. Ron and Draco tended to ignore him and harrumph at anything he had to say.

Although they abruptly got over their dislike, when Sean took them to see the horses and let them take them out for a ride. Harry loved it, it was second only to riding a broom, Hermione fussed and petted her horse but showed no interest in riding anywhere. In typical Draco style, he showed off, he'd been flying horse riding several times and was quite competent.


	16. Chapter 16

A few weeks later, Harry was sipping his tea at the breakfast counter, when Hermione walked in, white in the face, Snape close on her heels.

"What is it?" Harry asked anxiously,

Draco and Ron joined then, Draco going immediately to Harry's side and taking his hand in his,

"Oh no, this must be really bad" Harry said eyes darting around the other people's in the room, settling on Draco's silver orbs, "tell me" he whispered.

Snape was the one to start, "we have discussed this, long and hard, and have decided that. How did you put it Miss Granger?"

"That you would never forgive us if we kept this from you" Hermione picked up.

"Kept what, what's happened?"

"There's been an incident" Hermione tried, tactfully

"Well more like a hostage situation really" Ron butted in to which Hermione glared.

"What, like a Ransom?" Harry gulped and all remaining colour drained from his face "who?" he asked quietly, picturing Sirius or Ginny or Neville or... what if they'd got Dumbledore?

"The death eaters have overrun St. Mungo's, the patients that couldn't escape are now trapped inside" Hermione explained. Harry felt helpless, that could be hundreds of people.

"What are they asking for to release them?" Draco's hand tightened on his and he glanced back at him, "Draco?"

"you Harry, they want you".

Oh, Harry thought, a sense of, inexplicable, calm falling over him. He knew what he had to do now, things just became much simpler for him. Not getting the anticipated reaction from Harry, Snape felt a sense of foreboding, what was Harry planning?

"Don't get any ideas Mr Potter, we only told you because we thought it your right to know, not so that you could run off on a harebrained rescue attempt"

"Which you wouldn't, would you Harry?" Draco demanded

"No, of course not, there's no chance I could rescue that many, that would be really stupid" Harry reassured. Rescue? No, Harry thought that would be impossible. Give Voldemort his ransom fee, now, Harry thought that had a chance of success.

They carried on their day, all going through the motions but not really there, this had been a stark reminder of the life they had left and the suffering that was going on there, while they were safe.

That night, Harry pulled Draco tightly to him, holding on for dear life, no thought of anything else , Harry just wanted to be held and Draco was all too relieved to do the holding. He had argued against telling Harry about the ransom, convinced the foolish Gryffindor would insist on running off to help, but he had surprised Draco by agreeing to stay put. Not that they'd have let him go, he knew Snape had a length of rope in the cellar and he was not opposed to using it.

Harry waited several hours until he was sure the household was asleep. He gently extricated himself from Draco's arms, giving one last longing look at his boyfriend, he knew he wouldn't see him again after this and it broke his heart, but he also knew that, that was selfish. He couldn't sacrifice the lives of hundreds of strangers just so he could live.

He crept down the stairs and grabbed the back pack, he had stashed under there earlier. He shut the back door with a soft click, padding across the back garden in the direction of the stables, he hoped he'd find a way to get the horse back to Sean's family.

Once he'd saddled up Jessie, the most reliable of their mares, he took off for the forest. The same woods that he, Draco and Snape had traveled, way more than a year ago. Harry looked at them with a sense of nostalgia, surprised at the amount of fond memories he had of the place. If these were his final days, Harry was glad he got to experience such happiness before he died.

Snape was awoken by a noise that was still too foreign to him to immediately place, the door-bell? no, the telephone! Wait the telephone?

It was the middle of the night, Snape jumped out of bed and ran into the library.

"Er hello?" Snape asked, that was what muggles said, right?

"HELLO WHO IS THAT?" the tones of Arthur Weasley bellowed into the library

"It's me, Severus. Arthur?"

"OH, SEVERUS GOOD TO HEAR YOU, THIS IS VERY ODD ISN'T IT?"

Snape didn't know if he was commenting on the fact that he'd decided to scream into the phone or the actual process of using one in general.

"Er yes" either way, he decided it was best to agree.

"I JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD BE INFORMED THAT WE'VE GOT THEM ALL HERE SAFE AND SOUND"

"Who have you got, Arthur?"

"WHY THE PATIENTS OF COURSE, REAL GENIUS MOVE OF DUMBLEDORE'S SO NO NEED TO WORRY ANY MORE, SORRY FOR WAKING YOU".

Then the phone went dead before Snape could ask what Dumbledore had done, but at least now he could deliver some good news to his worried charges, he thought about waking them up, but decided it could wait until the morning.

Snape headed out into the hallway to find three expectant faces peering at him

"What was that?" Draco asked,

"Your father Mr Weasley"

"Is everything okay?" Hermione fretted

"Oh yes, he just thought we'd like to know that the hostages have been rescued, Dumbledore came through for them"

Draco sagged with relief "does Harry know?"

"Not if he's not here, you are the only ones I have told, where is he?"

"He isn't in there with you?" Draco asked, panic taking over his features

"No, I have not seen him".

Hermione sprang into action running to check the bathroom and then his bedroom,

"I think I'd have noticed if he was in there, don't you?" Draco snapped, the worry getting to him. Hermione ignored him and pushed past to clatter down the stairs.

"Harry!" she yelled, Draco followed and joined in, checking the lounge and the kitchen. Snape went back to Harry and Draco's room to look in their shoe cupboard, rooting through, Snape could see that Harry's hiking boots were not in there, Harry always put his stuff away, if they were not there, they were not in the house.

"Ronald, get dressed" he commanded as he went to his room to grab some clothes.

Hermione and Draco ran back upstairs

"He's not here" Draco wailed as he barged in on Snape, mid-dressing.

"As we have already surmised, get dressed, we will go after him, I am sure he cannot be long gone".

Draco nodded and ran back to his room, freezing for a second at the sight of the rumbled bed where he'd last held Harry. How could he not have seen that he was up to something?

"I should not have fallen asleep" he muttered to himself as he shoved his boots on.

They reconvened on the landing, Snape handing out torches "alright we need to head to the woods, there is no public transport at this time of night".

They all nodded and headed out the front door, just as they got there, the phone rang again. They hesitated, torn between a speedy get away and a potential source of information.

"Draco, you go, you can run to catch up"

"okay" Draco turned back and bolted for the phone.

Snape led the others to the edge of the forest trail,

"Harry has taken my only map, but we still have one compass, we need to head South East", he handed the compass to Hermione expectantly.

"I'm sorry, but I've never used one before".

Snape swore, Harry had left him with unrealistic expectations of muggle borns.

"Never mind" he snapped after giving up on figuring the thing out himself "he can't have gone far" they started out along the trail, hoping they were headed for the bus station, they originally used to get here.

"HARRY"

"HARRY" Ron and Hermione started to call, there torches sweeping across the forest boughs.

Just then, they heard footsteps thundering up behind them, they started, but it turned out to be Draco, "Harry's taken a horse" he gasped out desperately.

"What?" Snape asked, "where'd he get a bleeding horse?"

"He took it from Sean's, he was on the phone just now, Harry could be miles away!"

Draco crumpled in on himself in despair.

"Right, we shall head to this Sean's then, lead the way" he grabbed Draco by the shoulders and firmly maneuvered him to lead, Snape decided pro-activity would be the best way to distract Draco from worrying.

At the farm, they found Anna and Sean waiting with the family dogs, "come on then, Rufus and Bounty will find him, don't you worry" Sean reassured them.

"Aren't we taking the horses?" Draco asked, worried that Harry would outrun them.

"Not if he's gone through the forest lad, quicker on foot by far". Draco felt relief at his tone, trust the muggles to know what to do.

They quickly set off, back into the trees, following the dogs who were sniffing at the ground. They trekked through the night, almost running, using the adrenaline to keep them going. The daylight, slowly filtered through the canopy, revealing the vast extent of the forest and with it the impossibility of finding Harry in here.

They trudged down a steep embankment towards a stream, the hoof marks clear in the mud on their side, they hopped across onto the pebbles and stopped. The dogs kept sniffing around in circles but led them no further, they all glanced at Sean in question.

"Trail's gone, they can't track through water"

Draco felt himself turn cold all over, was that it? they'd lost him, Harry was gone?

Draco couldn't be around them right now, he made a bee-line into the nearest clump of trees and sank against a trunk, how could Harry do that to him? He never even got to say goodbye.

Uncaring of the muggles nearby Draco screamed out "STUPID GRYFFINDORS" and sank his head into his hands, shoulders wracked through with sobs.

Stupid dogs panting and snorting, why couldn't everyone just shut up? Draco thought in anger, wait dogs don't whinny. He glanced up, Jessie, the large brood mare stood in front of him, chomping on a mossy log. Draco jumped to his feet,

"If you're here…. HARRY!" Draco yelled

"HARRY!" he started running, in the direction he assumed the horse had come from.


	17. Chapter 17

At the shout of Harry's name, those still by the stream, ran towards the woods. Snape got there first to witness the reunion.

Harry emerged from behind a large conifer, just waiting and gazing longingly at Draco. Draco had sprinted up to a few feet away but stopped, as if afraid Harry would bolt. The others appeared behind Snape then, and Sean nipped to the side to secure Jessie.

It was clear Draco was crying, his shoulders shaking, Harry just seemed dazed. Hermione approached, behind Draco and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, she whispered in his ear and the spell appeared to be broken. Draco rushed forward at the same time as Harry, Draco scooped him up and spun around, cradling Harry's head to his shoulder.

"Stupid, stupid, Gryffindors" Draco sniffed into Harry's hair as he finally put him down.

"I'm glad I got the chance to say goodbye" Harry whispered, still not quite with it

"Say goodbye? goodbye! Harry? Nobody is saying goodbye"

"I am, Draco. I have to go, I can't hide here anymore"

"No, you don't understand, the hostages are safe now, Dumbledore got them out".

Harry smiled at the news and Draco felt overwhelming relief, until "But I still have to go back, I can't hide anymore"

"Harry no" Draco begged "please just come home, or at least let me come with you, you know I'd rather be killed, by your side, than be left here alone"

"Draco I can't ask that of you"

"Who's asking? I'm coming Harry, if you feel you have to leave, then I'm leaving with you"

"Us too" Ron added as they finally joined the boys.

Harry couldn't help but smile at his loyal friends "What happened to your Slytherin sense of self-preservation?" he asked Draco, playfully bumping his shoulder,

"It got sullied by Gryffindor foolishness".

They made their way, slowly, back through the woods, letting the dog's noses lead. Anna rode Jessie with Sean holding the dogs, Harry was hand in hand with Draco and Hermione with Ron. Snape brought up the rear, relieved beyond words to have Harry back in his care. More than any sense of duty would call for, he had really come to care for the kid, Snape realised with surprise.

Once home, Harry apologised for running off with the horse, they once again blamed Draco for getting them into a fight and causing Harry to run away, Draco was a little insulted they bought that so easily. They decided to leave discussions till later and went back to bed. Draco locked his arms around Harry and refused to let go, even in sleep.

The next morning, fully rested, they sat down to have an important discussion. Snape began,

"Now to prevent anymore harebrained suicide, whoops I mean rescue attempts" he said looking pointedly at Harry, who remained unapologetic "We shall need to promise, full disclosure, from now on".

Snape leveled a glare at everyone in attendance until they each relented and nodded in turn, "now as I see it, we have three options"

Hermione was the only one who didn't look confused by this. Wasn't it two? we stay or we go, Harry thought.

"There are two of you here, who have already reached the age of majority" Snape inclined his head at Ron and Draco "If so inclined, you could remove yourself from the immediate vicinity and apparate to the lakes yourself"

"And leave you three here?" Draco and Ron looked horrified

"Just until Harry and Miss Granger are old enough to join"

"No not an option" Ron said as Draco stepped up behind Harry, laying a possessive hand on his shoulder, to concur with Ron's statement.

"Noted" Snape said, already expecting that response, "Option two, we wait here until July, as was always the plan"

"Not just July" Harry harrumphed "the very end of July, 'as the seventh month dies'" Harry quoted bitterly.

Snape ignored him and looked at the others.

"Harry, it probably is the safest option"

"It's only a few more months" Ron and Hermione encouraged. Draco wanted to join in with persuading Harry to wait, but he knew that would only lead to Harry running away again.

"And the third?" Harry asked tensely

"We all leave now" Snape answered,

Harry nodded determinedly at that but Hermione looked exasperated, "that would be idiotic, the moment you cast magic, or were around someone else who cast magic, Voldemort would find you"

"Well that's kind of the point, 'Mione, I have to face him some time, when he finds me I'll be ready"

"Without any training, having not used magic for nearly two years?" Snape drawled sarcastically. Harry hated to admit it, but he did have a point.

"I see a fourth option" Draco interrupted to stop the ensuing argument.

Snape raised an eyebrow

"Your potion" Draco added,

Snape barked out a dry laugh, "is as good as useless without any way to test it".

"Test it on me, I'll try it" Draco answered

Snape really laughed at that, "do you have any idea how they test potions in real laboratories?... No? funnily enough, Draco, they don't just pour potential poisons down the throats of healthy victims and hope for the best"

Hermione piped up at that "No, I read about that, they conjure wizimorphs to simulate the effect of the potion on a human body, without there being a real person at risk"

"10 points to Gryffindor" Snape smirked.

"Yeah so? We don't have any wizimorphs, we have me and I volunteer" Draco replied adamantly.

"No Draco, that's too risky, if anyone should test it, it should be me, I'm the one who needs to take it anyway" Harry protested

"Me too Harry, I've not reached the age of majority yet either" Hermione gulped nervously "I will test it, it is the only way", Ron gawped at her, but Hermione lent in to whisper, "it's better me than Harry, I want to do this".

Ron, reluctantly, nodded.

"Besides" Hermione continued "I have read Professor Snape's notes and I find it highly unlikely that, that combination of ingredients would yield toxic results" she stated with growing confidence as Snape gave a nod in agreement.

"Really, Hermione you would do that?"

"For you Harry, of course" Harry blinked back tears at the loyalty of his friends.

"In that case, I shall fetch my samples" Snape headed down to the cellar,

Harry went to hug his best friend, "You mean so much to me Hermione, thank you, not just for this but for everything"

Hermione and Harry both sobbed at his words until Ron chipped in, "don't bum us all out mate, you make it sound like a eulogy" and everyone let out a nervous laugh as the maudlin mood was destroyed.

At Snape's return, Hermione kissed Ron on the cheek,

"Just take half" Snape instructed as he handed her a vial of deep midnight-blue liquid. Hermione gave a shaky smile, then tipped her head back and swallowed.

Hermione gave the obligatory "eurgh" at the taste and they all waited, "Uh that's weird" she stated,

"What? What is it?" Ron asked worriedly bending down to peer into his girlfriend's face.

"No, it's nothing, I thought I heard humming or something, almost like singing, but it's gone now, probably imagined it"

Snape took in that information but chose not to comment on it yet, "Well, I believe that is a positive result, as far as the potion's safety is concerned, it's efficacy is yet to be determined".

"So, I should take it now?" Harry asked eagerly

"I don't see why not, the full dose this time" Snape handed Harry a full vial and indicated to Hermione to finish hers.

They clinked their vials together and, as one, knocked them back. Harry agreed with Hermione about the taste, metallic and slightly oily, then the most peculiar sensation rippled through him, he, too, thought he heard an eerie noise, almost like hissing, unintelligible parseltongue.

Hermione seemed to be over the effects, but Harry was still drawn into himself, listening to his magic, until he heard a sound, unlike his own, a tortured screaming of thousands of agonized souls ripping through his mind. Harry screamed grabbing at his forehead.

"Harry!" Draco yelled and followed Harry to his knees on the floor, "Snape, help!" he implored, glaring up at him.

Snape grabbed a pain-relieving potion from his pocket and picked up a cloth off the side, joining Draco on the floor. Prising Harry's hands away from his face, Snape could see the blood running down his face. He wiped away the worst and saw that Harry's scar was massively inflamed and almost visibly throbbing.

Then all of a sudden it stopped, the flow of blood dried up and the scar settled down, looking even fainter than before. Harry collapsed back on Draco in exhaustion,

"Well that wasn't pleasant" Harry huffed, sarcastically "I think the potion worked though" everyone stared incredulously down at the bloody boy on the floor,

"And how have you come to that conclusion?" Snape asked,

"I could hear my magic, it was hissing at me and as the potion took hold I could hear it morphing, not completely different but still distinguishable"

"And the screaming and bleeding?" Draco asked, not convinced by Harry's tale.

"You could hear that?" Harry asked, shocked, he thought that was in his head.

"Yeah, you were the one screaming, mate" Ron said looking worriedly down at his friend.

"Oh, no I meant the other voices screaming" Harry stated matter-of-factly, everyone else feeling a bit creeped out, "I think that was Voldemort's magic, I don't think that could be changed by the potion though, I think, instead, it just got rid of it, hence the bleeding".

Snape caught up quickly with the new development, Dumbledore had always said Harry must have taken in some of Voldemort's magic on the night he disappeared. This did add another complication though, if the potion hadn't managed to remove the foreign magic from Harry's core, then Voldemort might still be able to trace him.

Only one way to find out, Snape thought. He removed the emergency wand from its anti-incantation holster.

Draco gawped "you had a wand all this time?"

"And believe me Draco, the temptation to use it, has been unbearable on occasion, be grateful, that you did not have to suffer it as well".

Snape ushered them down to the cellar, to give them the best chance, in case they were mistaken, then cast a simple lumos. Snape let out a very, un-Snape like sigh at the rush he felt at using magic again. Then he handed the wand to Hermione, to cover all bases.

She cast the same, it not being quite as momentous to her, as she'd only gone without for a few months.

Harry grabbed eagerly for the wand and this was the moment Snape dreaded, all his doubts about the success of this endeavour came down to this moment.

"Expecto Patronum" Harry couldn't help himself from casting, a beautiful lion burst forth and loped gracefully around the room. Snape didn't know what to be more in awe at, the fact that Harry's stag had transformed or the raw power behind the spectre, this wasn't any normal patronus, it filled the air with a blinding light, great rings of it pulsing out rhythmically accompanied by a deep booming noise.

"Whoops" Harry laughed cheekily.

"Now what?" Draco asked, as the patronus did one final loop and faded away.

"We give it 10 minutes and if death eaters aren't pounding down the doors, I'd wager this was a success" Snape answered.

They all lent against the lab benches to wait, Draco casually reached for the wand and cast his own expecto patronum. A duller, but no less regal, lioness jumped out and proudly but silently roared.

"Cool" Harry gasped, Draco was pleased that he had finally cast one, never getting more than mist before but still a bit miffed his turned out to be the symbol of Gryffindor.

After a tense, few minutes Snape gave the all clear, and cautiously ascended the steps. Once he had guaranteed, that they were still alone, he motioned for the others to follow.

"So, what do we do now?" Ron asked

"I will contact the order to expect us, I should think we can be away by this evening".

They spent the day packing up and taking turns to shrink their luggage, if they got a bit carried away trying to shrink their bags as small as they possibly could, who could blame them?

By the time the sun was sinking low in the sky, they were finished packing and lined up at the front door. Harry cast a couple of cleaning charms and Snape left a note to Trish, with enough money to cover a few more month's rent. Harry was sad he couldn't say goodbye to his friends, but hoped they'd understand. With one final glance at what had been their safe haven for a long time, Snape linked all of their hands and they apparated away.


	18. Chapter 18

They arrived into what appeared to be an empty, rocky canyon, all of them glancing around nervously, in case this was a trap. Just then, the rock face in front of them, transformed before their eyes, until a crevice large enough for, single file entry, emerged. A very welcome sight greeted them as Dumbledore ducked out and straightened.

"Ah, you have returned, safe and sound, I hope?" with a pointed look at Severus,

"the potion was a success, they are now untraceable"

"excellent excellent, now in you come, there are many here who will be thrilled to see you".

Dumbledore ushered Harry, Ron and Hermione through the fissure and turned to the waiting Slytherin's.

"One moment please, headmaster?" Draco asked

"very well" Dumbledore agreed and followed the other Gryffindor's.

"What is it Draco?" Snape asked, confused as to why Draco held him back,

"thank you Sev, I owe you more than I can ever repay"

"what for?" Snape couldn't imagine what he'd done to earn this level of gratitude.

"For the potion, for being brilliant enough for it to work"

"oh, well you're welcome Draco, but you do realise, you could have returned in another few months without it, you could have returned in March, if you hadn't insisted on waiting for Harry".

"Do you think, for one minute that, had the potion not worked, Harry would have remained in Scotland?"

The question didn't take long for Snape to consider, "no, he would have run off, risking life and limb in a futile attempt to save the day"

"Exactly, and he would have been killed the second he encountered magic, you saved him Sev, again, and I'll always be indebted to you".

Snape reached to wrap an arm around his godson, startled when he realised Draco stood at least an inch above him "do not be foolish Draco, you owe me nothing, what else are godfathers for?".

The summer, found them, training as hard as they ever had before, their day's spent dueling with anyone who could spare the time. Harry gathered his class mates together and they set about their own training routines, sharing their skills and expertise between them, so as not to keep bugging the busy Order members. Neville came up with the name "Dumbledore's Army" and the DA stuck. The other students, predominantly Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, were a little surprised that Draco was joining them, but after he shared his extensive knowledge of shielding dark curses, they happily accepted him.

As well as the training, the four new arrivals settled into life in the underground, very quickly, reacquainting themselves with the wonder of magic. Somehow, the earlier wizards that had built this place, purely out of stone, had fashioned an entire city, complete with shops, a much-needed hospital, a building suitable for schooling and hundreds of houses. The four of them were now sharing a dwelling with the Weasley's sans Bill and Charlie who were living with their girlfriends. Ron, Hermione, Draco and Harry had to share a room, which worked out well as they could make arrangements to take turns at having their 'alone time', just as long as they followed Ron's ordered "don't you bleedin' dare start canoodling on our bed".

To their hilarity, Snape was put in with the twins and Percy, leaving Ginny to share with her parents. Sirius and Remus were living in the tiny flat above their house. Soon becoming everyone's favourite neighbours. At the full moon Moony could be found, tanked up on modified wolfsbane, sniffing around and licking people, the slightly more controlled Padfoot following after. They were promptly adopted as the adorable neighbourhood pets.

Just into July, they received intelligence that Voldemort was planning an attack on the muggle underground tube network. Harry begged to be involved in the counter-operation, citing that he had the most experience of London Underground stations. Dumbledore allowed it, as long he agreed to use polyjuice the entire time, Draco allowed it if he agreed to let him come too. Which is how, the night before his 17th birthday, Harry found himself as 'Hetty' the 30 something year old muggle out for a trip on the tube with her husband 'Drake'. Their orders were to observe the crowds on the platform and the passengers on board the trains and send out magical detection spells at anything suspicious. If they encountered anything they were immediately to apparate out, even if there were muggles around and report to the rendezvous point. Leaving the Aurors to take care of it.

It sounded so simple, until they had indeed followed their instructions, got to the rendezvous and found themselves face to face with Death Eaters. Harry had grasped Draco's arm and cracked through their anti-deapparition wards. Too magically drained to get them back to the lakes, Harry had apparated them to a roof top on the other side of London. Draco sent a patronus message to the leading Auror to warn not to use the rendezvous. They got a hawk patronus back, instructing them to hold tight and await further instruction. He and Draco huddled together under some transfigured blankets attempting to sleep, wondering what on earth had gone wrong, but relieved they'd managed to escape. The next day, saw no message either, they were tempted to message the Aurors again in case they had been forgotten about but didn't want to give them away if they were in a tricky spot.

The day dragged on and they decided to save the last of their polyjuice, in case they needed it later. He knew it was silly but Harry felt a lot more comfortable once 'Drake' had taken on the familiar form of Draco. They were nearly out of food too and they decided if they heard nothing by the end of that day, they would apparate back to the lakes. Neither voicing their apprehension at what may have gone wrong there, but both aware there was a chance something had.

"No one's going to send for us, are they?" Harry sighed, he really didn't want to return to Dumbledore and risk exposing the location in case they were followed.

"Doesn't look like it" Draco agreed.

"Back to the lakes?" Harry asked,

"I suppose we have no choice, there's nowhere else we know is safe".

Just before they grasped hands to apparate, needing their combined magic to go the distance, Harry took one final look at the outside world before they would be forced to go underground again. The sun was sinking in the sky, casting a subtle pink glow on the clouds reminding him, fondly, of his beautiful Birthday the year before, he wondered what his next would bring, if he even lived that long. They made it back to the Lakes, and found it still free of Death Eaters, nobody knew how their rendezvous was discovered, but as the Aurors had successfully foiled the Death Eaters attack, it was considered a success.

A few weeks later, Harry and Draco were catching up with Sirius.

"How you survived all that time living with Snivelus, is beyond me, kiddo" Sirius said clapping Harry on the back. Both Harry and Draco glared, despite Draco being grateful for the man, who cursed Harry's male relatives to suffer excruciating pain if they ate anything but apples, Draco didn't really like him.

"Don't call him that" Harry muttered.

Draco knew Harry was uncomfortable standing up to his godfather, as he saw him as the only real family he had, but screw that, Draco was his family now.

"Better than living with you mutt, a lot fewer dog hairs, come on Harry" Draco grabbed his boyfriend's hand and towed him away. Harry cast a hurt look over his shoulder at his godfather.

Later on, Harry went up to their flat, feeling a bit bad, Remus greeted him at the door/ hole in the stone work.

"Harry, glad you came back, Sirius has been kicking himself ever since" as soon as Harry sat down Sirius began an obviously scripted apology

"I am very sorry for being so insensitive" here, he looked up at Remus, as if checking he'd used the correct word, Remus rolled his eyes "I did not consider that you may have grown close to snivi….Snape, over the time you spent with him and I will endeavour to hold my tongue in the future"

"Hold your tongue?" Harry asked "you should have nothing to hold your tongue about, the man that you profess to loath so much, has saved my life more times than I can count"

"watch it kid, you're starting to talk like him now, it gives me the creeps"

"why shouldn't I talk like him? There's nothing wrong with the way he talks, there's nothing wrong with him in general" Harry paused then amended "well not enough to inspire such hatred".

"You didn't know him in school though, Harry, the Snape's are nasty pieces of work, dark through and through. As a first year, he knew more curses then most of the seventh years, more than some teachers I'd wager"

Harry was shocked that this prejudice stemmed from his feelings about an 11-year-old, "oh yes, and we all know it is common knowledge that if you come from a dark family you must be dark yourself, right _Black_?" Harry bit out sarcastically and Remus snorted at how easily Harry had cut him down to size.

"Well at least I didn't show up at school and act it, I did everything I could to distance myself from their evil past, I was the first Gryffindor Black, ever"

"and you think Snape has not tried to distance himself from his past? He risked everything to save me from that graveyard and then gave up his magic to protect me"

"Still got sorted into Slytherin didn't he?" Sirius answered petulantly.

"So? I nearly got sorted into Slytherin and Draco actually did and he's one of the most caring and sincere and bravest people I know" Sirius chose to ignore the comment about Draco, the topic of Harry's newly revealed boyfriend a sore one.

"I know you made Snape's life hell at school, I know you nearly killed him and I also know he is the one who is civil to you now, not the other way around"

"what do you want me to say Harry?" Sirius implored at a loss

"I want you to apologise to him" Sirius snorted "but I know that is more than I could hope for, so really, I just want you to treat him like a man who has risked his life to save your godson's, can you do that?"

Sirius met his eyes and nodded "I'll try".

"Ah, there you are Harry" Draco chirped as he lent around their doorway,

"Sirius is making amends" Remus informed him quietly

"I shall not interrupt then" Draco made to turn around but couldn't help scolding "Bad doggy!" on his way. Harry laughed and went to hug his godfather, grateful for Draco's ability to always break the tension.

News from the outside was that Autumn had begun, the people in the underground just had to take their word for it. Harry was beginning to feel claustrophobic trapped down there, he wanted to fight, his training was going well, he could now beat Flitwick and Minerva in a duel, not Snape though, who had an unnatural ability to circumvent Harry's shields. It was around this time that a strange illness kept cropping up, it tended to affect the children, where they complained of stomach ache and developed a blue tinge to their gums. None of the mediwizards from St. Mungo's could identify what strange bug it could be so put it down to a consequence of being trapped inside for long periods of time and not getting enough fresh food.

This was until Draco found Harry curled in a trembling ball on their bed, one afternoon. He immediately went to fetch Snape, who examined him,

"Harry, where about in your abdomen is the pain?" Snape asked probing his fingers against Harry's tender stomach,

As Harry answered "around here" pointing, Draco gasped "what's wrong with your mouth, Harry?".

Snape immediately took hold of Harry's chin "open" he commanded to find a strange discolouration to the lining of his mouth.

"No, it can't be" Snape muttered to himself,

"What? What is it?" Draco demanded.

"Well it looks, like poisoning, heavy metal poisoning" Snape sounded puzzled

"What does that mean? He'll be okay, won't he?" at that point Harry gave a warning noise and was promptly sick over the side of the bed, Draco summoned a bucket and rubbed Harry's back.

"I'll be right back" Snape reassured "don't let him ingest anything, neither do you".

Snape managed to find some general antidote at the hospital and warned that there might be a poisoning outbreak. When he'd given them a list of symptoms, they slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together. Snape was enraged that not one of the mediwizards had recognised the symptoms, but couldn't spare the time to yell at them. He rushed the antidote over to a relieved Draco and went to help discover the source of the poisoning.

After hours of investigating they discovered that mercury had somehow gotten into one of the water supplies and leached into the soil that they were magically growing fruit and veg from. They deduced that the children were affected first, due to their smaller systems, the mediwizards couldn't understand why it had affected Harry though. After some deliberation, Snape figured it out. Ha! he thought, that'd teach the boy for eating so much fruit.

The Aurors managed to trace the mercury to a witch named Nigella Umbridge. Under veritiserum she broke and confessed she was working for the Death Eaters, who were aware of the Underground's location. Lord Voldemort's plan was to keep them there and weaken them from the inside, before mounting his attack. A crisis meeting of the order was called.

Dumbledore started off the meeting, "with the underground's location compromised it is useless to us, it is not a strategic fortress, there are too many entrances with no way to effectively defend"

"so what do you suggest, Albus? We up and move everyone? to where?" Moody argued,

"I agree" Lead-Auror Shacklebolt continued "where else have we to go? even with our location known, we are better off together here, then scattered about the countryside in hiding"

"That is not what I am suggesting Gentlemen" Dumbledore cut them off,

"Is there somewhere else we can go to be safe, Albus?" Mrs Weasley asked, poorly disguising the hope in her voice.

"Hogwarts" Dumbledore stated simply.

Oh here we go, Harry thought, we're doomed, he's finally lost it. Before anyone else could echo Harry's sentiment's aloud, Snape chipped in.

"I agree with Albus, I believe the sheer audacity of such a move, would strike the Dark Lord by surprise. He will have all of his energy focused on us here, I doubt, even the very lowest ranking Death Eaters are guarding the castle at present"

"Be that as it may, Snape, even if the castle is empty, if you-know-who has reset the Hogwart's wards, which he would be a fool not to do, we still stand no chance of breaching them" Moody replied snidely

"Could we not go and check the wards" a timid voice perked up from the back

"Absolute folly, setting off the wards would alert him to our presence, leaving us stranded, open for attack" Moody shot back.

"Not necessarily" Dumbledore stated with unflappable patience, as if he knew, that no matter how long they thrashed out their plans, his would always be accepted in the end.

"How so?" Mr Weasley asked

"Hogwarts always helps those who are loyal to the headmaster. Despite recent times, I am still the rightful master at Hogwarts"

"So you believe we are just going to waltz back through the wards?" Moody asked incredulously "no offence but, you first, headmaster".

"Very well" Dumbledore agreed "when the time comes"

"This is madness" Moody said throwing his hands up in exasperation "Who votes for the Headmaster's plan to commit mass suicide?"

All original order members and the entire staff of Hogwarts along with any students present raised their hands.

Moody's calculating eye swept over them, "who's for staying here?" all remaining Aurors raised their's.

"That's settled" Moody said triumphantly, "we're staying put".

"Hold up" Shacklebolt warned "as it is Mr Potter, who will ultimately face the Dark Lord, perhaps he should have more of a say".

Harry blushed as all eyes turned to him, "I agree with Dumbledore. While we stay here, we are sitting ducks, we could be attacked at any moment. And spread out like this" Harry spread his arms to encompass the sprawling city, "we could be picked off one by one. The only chance we have is to attempt to retake Hogwarts"

"And if we fail to break the wards?" Moody repeated impatiently

"Than at least we have died trying, not cowering in our rabbit hole" Harry answered

"They took Hogwarts once before, what will stop them from doing it again?" that same nasal voice shot from the back.

"We will" Harry replied, "when they come for us there, we will be ready to face them" Harry didn't know where he got the confidence to make that statement, but he knew it was the only chance they stood.

"Re-vote" Kingsley called.

This time, about half of the Aurors voted with the order. Dumbledore just leveled a twinkle at everyone and said placidly "I believe it is time to pack".

They decided it would be safest to apparate in two groups, the first with Dumbledore to test the wards and those prepared to fight if things didn't go to plan. The second group consisting of those incapable of fighting and a few Aurors to protect them.

Harry arrived with the first group, Draco to his left, Ron and Hermione to his right. Harry immediately knew this was the right decision when he sensed the power radiating from the glorious sight of the castle, standing proud on the cliffs. The group held their breaths and waited as Dumbledore reached out to touch the gate, there was a loud pop! And they all brandished their wands prepared for attack, when they noticed a tiny green figure standing in front of the Headmaster.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, Sir, Dobby is welcoming you back to Hogwarts" he squeaked with a bow

"Why thank you Dobby" Dumbledore greeted, as the gates swung open and they all pressed though into the grounds, looking around, in disbelief.

Harry squeezed through to the front "Dobby, where are the Death Eaters?"

"Master Harry Potter Sir, Dobby is so pleased to see you is well sir. We house elves got rid of the bad men, sir. The castle was playing naughty tricks on them too"

"Is that my old elf?" Draco asked in bewilderment as he joined Harry at the front to the group, heading up to the castle.

"Aaa!" Dobby squeaked and hid behind his ears.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that, I set him free for you" Harry said cheekily,

Draco blinked disbelieving the absurdity of the situation, "Why'd you do that? When were you at my house?"

"Oh, no, your dad brought Dobby into the school with him once and I just found myself in one of those generous moods where you feel like handing your socks out to people"

"Master Harry Potter sir is very kind" Dobby said in his defense.

There were a series of apparition cracks from behind and they turned to see the last of their party safely arrive at the gates.

"Well it turns out that it is ridiculously easy to capture a castle, I don't see what my ancestors had to brag about" Draco huffed.

Setting up in the castle didn't take long at all, true to their word, the house elves had run out the Death Eaters and cleaned up any trace of them. The St. Mungo's staff set up in the hospital wing, the Aurors took over the Ravenclaw dorms, the Order the Gryffindor and any families with kids divided up the Hufflepuff rooms. That left the DA in the dungeons, which Draco was thrilled about. He had quickly reserved one of the old prefect's rooms and he and Harry had made good use of the privacy. Harry kept blushing pink, in the meeting with Dumbledore, whenever he recalled the events of the previous night, he blushed even deeper when he caught Snape's knowing smirk.

The plans for the final show down were hashed out, memorised, adjusted and then re-memorised. The plan was to meet the Death Eaters on the grounds, to keep the hospital and the children safe. There would be three attack forces, led by Dumbledore, Kinglsey and Harry himself. The Aurors and Harry were to go around the outside, take the Death Eaters from the back and fight their way through to re-join Dumbledore's group in blockading the castle. They suspected Voldemort would hang back at first, if not, Harry was to leave the DA with Neville and focus only on the Dark Lord.

Draco's only comment when Harry told him of the Neville contingency was, "I'm staying with you, I mean it Potter, I know some wicked spells involving rope, don't make me use them". Harry got a little thrill at thinking about the other uses Draco could put those spells to.

A few days later, they received intelligence that Voldemort's Army were gathering nearby, the attack was imminent. That night as they Harry and Draco lay in bed, Draco held Harry's fingers between his, playing with them, considering them closely, then kissed each one.

"These fingers are so precious to me" Draco murmured nearly silently "you don't know what you mean to me Harry" Harry reached up and gave him a reassuring kiss on the jaw, "since I've got to know you, every moment has been special, I don't know what I'd do without you" he paused and gulped "I've loved you since we trekked through the woods together... I've loved you since you laughed at my dress robes" Draco's breathing was getting shaky,

"Hey" Harry soothed "I love you too, you know?" Draco brought his face down for a tender kiss and he vowed, no matter what happened that would not be their last.

Late the next day, a house elf popped up in Dumbledore's office.

"Headmaster! The dark ones are at Hogsmeade, sir".

Dumbledore stood calmly, casting sonorous, he boomed, "The castle is under attack, head to your stations, and good luck".

Harry raced down the spiral stairs, heading for the front doors.

Draco shot out of nowhere "Harry" he grabbed his hand and pulled him into an alcove.

"Draco, we have to go there's no time now, we will have time after",

"We will?" Draco asked urgently, cupping Harry's head and bringing their faces together, "do you promise? Do you promise that you'll survive, that we'll spend the rest of our lives together?" Draco pleaded desperately.

"I promise to love you forever, Draco". Draco nodded, slightly calmer, as they exited the alcove. Harry added sadly in his head "however long that may be".


	19. Chapter 19

Warning for minor character death

* * *

"Draw them away from the castle" Dumbledore's voice boomed.

Harry quickly beckoned for the DA to flank to the right of the approaching Death Eaters, over towards the lake. They huddled down and ran, hunkering into the protective shade of the forest. They could see the Aurors running around the left towards their position. The rest of the order, led by Dumbledore, then charged forward towards the gates, where the Death Eaters were bringing down the wards.

A volley of spells was fired from each side and the shouts of battle began. Harry carried on, leading his group around to sneak up on the Death Eaters from behind. They arrived first and waited in the bushes for the signal from the Aurors that they were in position too, and waited and waited, the fighting continued in front of them but no sign came.

Just then the decision to join was taken out of Harry's hands. So far, the side of the light had been easily distinguishable from the side of the dark with clearly drawn battle lines. But now, somehow Sirius and Lupin had been cut off and were surrounded by death eaters, they stood no chance.

Harry jumped up, Draco right by him "NOW!" he yelled and the DA charged out from the trees.

Death Eaters spun to face them immediately and Harry fought to keep his godfather in sight "Sirius!" he yelled taking down death eaters in his path. He caught sight of Lupin and redoubled his efforts to get to them, just as he broke through so did Bellatrix,

"Iddy biddy Potter" she taunted with a manic grin and fired off the killing curse at Sirius.

Harry went to dive in front but Lupin grabbed him around the waist, "No, Harry" he said grimly.

Harry spared a last look at the prone form of his godfather, lying on the battleground, face forever frozen in greeting at the sight of his godson, but Harry knew he couldn't grieve him yet.

He grabbed Lupin's arm and concentrated on joining up the DA with the rest of the order. Draco caught up and Harry felt a brief sense of relief, they cursed and they stunned their way through to where Dumbledore's group were fighting, at least he had achieved his first objective, Harry thought, no matter if the Aurors had failed them.

Draco tensed and gasped at his elbow, Harry took out the Death Eater he had been dueling and turned to look.

Narcissa Malfoy was hurrying towards them, "Mother stop!" Draco yelled, unsure of himself, Narcissa kept coming though.

Draco glanced at Harry but Harry couldn't help,

"impedimenta" Draco yelled and Narcissa was blocked from coming any closer, they stared at each other, at a stalemate.

With Harry distracted by Draco's predicament he missed Dolohov aiming his wand, "Avada Kad" Antonin got out before he was struck down, Harry whirled to look at what had happened, to see Lucius Malfoy's wand trained on the body of Dolohov.

Draco dropped the bind on his mother and both parents rushed over,

"Oh my dragon" Narcissa breathed as she embraced her son,

Draco looked questioningly at his father, "wherever you fight son, we shall join you".

Harry and Draco nodded at his parents and all four jumped back into the fray.

Hours of grueling fighting progressed well into the night, Death Eaters fell slowly, but so had a few on their side. Just then the reason for the Auror's failed showing, made itself clear. Voldemort emerged from the forest, casting a ghostly aurora around himself, if his aim was to intimidate, it worked, the glow illuminated the mass of bodies dressed in auror red, littering the ground around his feet.

A demonic cackle filled the air, "Oh Potter, I'm ready for you now" rang across the battle field.

Dumbledore and Snape fought their way through to Harry, Snape clapped him on the shoulder, "we'll get you a way through".

Harry and Draco joined them, carving a path towards the monster. Voldermort had glided his way up to a hill top, surveying the battlefield but not joining in, he cackled to himself all the way. Rage filled Harry and renewed his strength, taking out Death Eaters all around.

As they nearly reached the mound, out of nowhere, Nagini reared her ugly head, jumping out at Dumbledore and ripping open the old wizard's throat. Dumbledore sat down heavily, clutching at the open wound.

"Go, Harry, get to him" Dumbledore wheezed out, Snape was kneeling at Dumbledore's feet trying to stem the blood flow but Dumbledore knocked him away, "now Harry, go and fulfill your destiny".

Harry was stuck to the spot though, the most powerful wizard he knew was dying on the ground, all hope left his soul.

The Death Eaters were crowding in again to the sound of Voldemort calling, "bye bye old man".

Snape was forced to leave Dumbledore's side to fight them off and Dumbledore slumped down to the ground. Harry's knees would have given out then, if it wasn't for the sound of phoenix song.

Fawkes swooped through the air towards them. Instead of going for Dumbledore, as Harry expected, the bird suddenly caught alight. In a great burning circle the bird soared around them, engulfing the surrounding death eaters in a wall of flame, as one they screamed at the torture and fell to the ground. The murderous snake writhed in fiery agony and she too succumbed to the flames. Voldemort's cackling just increased as more Death Eaters moved in to take their place.

Snape broke off fighting, "now Harry you have to end this now".

Draco and Harry steeled themselves and together made their ascent. Lord Voldemort, stood proud on the hill top, gazing down over the carnage of his creation.

Sensing Harry's proximity, the dark lord, turned and offered a terrifying smile, "Oh Harry, it makes me so happy to see you come willingly to your own death" then spotting Draco beside him he clapped his hands together in glee "and look! You brought me another sacrifice, first the old coot and now this".

The reminder of Dumbledore's and Sirius' fall spurred Harry into action, "not today Riddle, no more will die at your hand".

Voldemort's mirth turned sour at Harry's confident, commanding tone.

"And who are you to stop me? A boy, a boy found cowering away from danger, when his friends needed him" at this Voldemort lifted one arm and fired a curse underneath it, headed straight for Draco, Draco threw up a shield but that didn't prevent him from being thrown backwards, sprawled on the ground and not moving.

"No!" Harry shouted, "this ends now!" at Harry's proclamation, those fighting in the vicinity, paused to look up at the hill. What they saw was an awe-inspiring site, the first orange rays of dawn crept over the horizon, and the two most powerful wizards alive stood in its glow. The cries of "Avada Kadavra" were heard by all around and two jets of green light, simultaneously flew from the two wizards and they both fell.

Draco blinked up from his position on the ground, the zing of powerful magic was in the air. Groaning, he pulled himself upwards, the sounds of many wizards disapparating came from below but Draco didn't care to see why, he had to find Harry. He frantically peered around and then glanced down when there was no sign. The long black form of Lord Voldemort was lying, still, on the ground, and heart pounding with dread, Draco's eyes moved over to where Harry had been. There, opposite, his nemesis, lay the wizard he had fallen in love with, the wizard who had changed his life and brought hope to his future.

Draco stumbled over, "Harry, Harry, no, Harry" he couldn't get his mind around what he was seeing, grasping his love's hand he frantically looked for signs of life, "breathe, you've got to breathe Harry" he sobbed and gulped "no, no, you have to come back, now, you can't leave me, you can't be gone".

Draco grasped the still boy to his chest, dragging him up from the ground, "we'll get you some help now, I'll make it all better, just don't go anywhere Harry". Draco used all his remaining strength to haul Harry back through the trees, towards the castle. Once inside he ran up to the hospital wing that was already filling with other injured wizards, Draco paid them no mind.

Hot on his heels were Snape and Lucius.

"Draco, put him down here, I'll have a look at him" Snape instructed, Draco gently lifted Harry onto a bed but left his head cradled in his hands. Snape frowned, Harry wasn't moving, or making any noise, there was no obvious damage though. He cast a quick diagnostic spell, it came back blank, as if fired at an inanimate object. Lucius drew in a sharp breath, Snape tried again to no avail. Dropping his wand, he felt for a pulse point, there was none, the boy was stone cold dead.

Draco was staring at him pleadingly, "do something, you have to make him breathe, he can't breathe" Snape looked into that desperate young face and all he could do was shake his head.

"What do you mean? why aren't you doing anything?" he then whipped around to stare at Lucius "Father, get someone to help, there must be someone who knows what to do".

Draco was shaking with anguish now "why are you still standing there? save him, save Harry" and on the last word, he broke into a heart wrenching sobs and curled into the boy in his arms. "No, no, no Harry you're too still, please wake up, please look at me" he sat up to gaze into the serene face below, so at odds with the panic in the room around them. "Harry, you have to listen, you promised me forever, you promised me you would love me forever, don't break your promises…. Harry" he howled, then whispered gazing into the boy's face "I need you, please don't leave me here alone".

Lucius shot Snape a bewildered glance, but Snape shook his head, "Not here" he quietly said.

Lucius hesitantly stepped behind his anguished son, "my Dragon, he has gone, we should leave here now, the hospital is getting crowded"

Draco let out a snarl at his father "I am not leaving him, he needs me, how dare you try and make me leave him here".

Lucius stepped back, concerned, "alright, Draco, we shall give you today".

Draco didn't even look up from where he was soothing his hand through Harry's hair as the two men left.

"I need an explanation Severus and I need one now"

Snape sighed, he had forgotten how demanding Malfoy Senior could be. "I take it you mean, as to why, you find your son crying over the body of a boy he used to loath?" Lucius gave a sharp nod. The two men, made their way down towards his quarters. Aurors were running here and there about the school, but everything seemed to be under control, at least there were no more Death Eaters in sight. Inside, Snape poured two very large whiskies, and they settled down to talk.

Lucius looked up shakily from where he had been holding his head in his hands, "you're telling me, my son is a homosexual?"

Snape nodded, he was sure he had made that point very clear when he explained about him sleeping with Harry, but oh well.

"He is a homosexual who has taken 'the-chosen-one' as his lover?"

Snape nodded again, maybe he should check Lucius for concussion.

"My only heir, the only chance of continuing on the Malfoy line, prefers men?" Lucius put his head back in his hands.

Snape couldn't really see what the problem was, "come off it Lucius, have you never heard of adoption?"

"And allow the true Malfoy blood to die out?" he scoffed "I think not"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much now Luc" Snape was becoming tired of the other Slytherin, his son was distraught over the death of his lover and all Lucius cared about was the gender of said lover. Lucius turned a questioning brow at Snape, so Snape continued, "after all, I doubt Draco will be parading around with anyone, boy or not, in the near future"

"Oh he is young, he will get over this loss in no time, Malfoy's do not suffer sentimentality".

Snape vehemently disagreed that Draco would be getting over this anytime soon but knew there was no point arguing.

Just then there was a knock at his door and Narcissa arrived with news that the remaining Death Eater's surrendered and St. Mungo's was being reopened for casualties. Claiming Draco was well but resting in the hospital wing for now, they avoided all talk of Harry Potter for the rest of the evening, although Snape's thoughts remained well and truly with the boy's in the hospital wing.


	20. Chapter 20

The second time, Harry prepared for death, was much like the first. He let the world fall away around him and brought up the faces of those he loved, his parents besieged him with proud smiles, Ron and Hermione sighed with sadness at their lost friend and Sirius clapped him on the back in welcoming. This time though, there was another face, standing out much clearer than the rest. The shining pools of silver met him, brimming with anguished tears, Draco's mouth was moving but Harry could not make out the words.

Draco, Draco had been hit, was he okay? Harry wondered idly, never know now, never look into the depths of those diamond eyes again, never see the emotions play across his face, never get to make him smile. He wished this vision Draco would smile, so he could see it, one last time. Oh Draco, he promised he'd be there forever, what would Draco do without him? Harry's drifting mind, seemed to find an anchor with that thought. Draco needed him, he couldn't just leave like this. This is what Voldemort had accused him of, running away, when the people he loved needed him. Not this time, this time he would fight.

Draco, jerked awake, glancing around he couldn't see anything that had caused his abrupt awakening. He shifted and felt the small body of the boy he loved, still in his arms. Oh merlin, Harry, he wrapped his arms tighter around him, inhaling deeply, vowing never to forget Harry's unique smell.

"Oh Harry" he murmured "you're cold, too cold" remembering the warm, comforting shape he'd held in his arms every night.

Then he was brought up short, "but not that cold" he scrambled around, feeling more of Harry's skin, then cast tempus. It was 3 in the morning, nearly a whole day, had passed since Harry's fall and yet his skin was not ice cold.

"Harry" he called shaking the boy by the shoulders gently, "Harry, please, if you can hear me, you have to wake up", Draco grabbed Harry's wrist and felt for a pulse. Damn, he was crap at finding one, but he thought he felt something beat back against his thumb. Yes, yes, could this really be happening?

Draco knelt forward putting his head against Harry's mouth, trying to feel breath. There it was! Air puffed out across his cheek and then there was a murmur, Draco jumped back off the bed,

"Harry, what? did you say something?",

"I said your hair's tickling me".

Draco's mouth dropped open in shock, as he gaped at the boy in the bed, who was in the process of raising himself up on his elbows.

"Dray… are you o. mmmphhh" Draco threw himself at the boy engulfing him in his arms and burying his head against his neck.

Pulling back a bit he looked into Harry's face "you're incredible" and kissed him on the forehead "remarkable" kiss to the cheek "and abso-bloody-lutely terrifying to love" then kissed him passionately on the mouth. Harry responded and molded himself to Draco's body, elated that his vision was wrong and he would live to see Draco smile again.

The stress of the last few days must have been getting to Draco, as he began peeling off his clothes and rubbing his hands up and down Harry's sides, "Mmm, need you" he got out between kisses.

"Mm, woa, Draco, stop, not here, we're not doing it in the hospital wing"

Draco just pushed his hands further up Harry's top, "who says? besides you're the saviour now, no one can tell you what to do",

"A part from you, it would seem" Harry laughed

"Less talking, more stripping" Draco said as he managed to divest both himself and Harry of their upper garments.

Harry knew it would be up to him to prevent any further, public nudity, he wiggled out from beneath Draco. Holding out his hand to the affronted wizard, still on the bed "come on, I know somewhere more suitable and once we're done you can explain to me, what the bleeding hell happened".

"Fine" Draco huffed "but it had better be close".

After a fitful, few hours rest, Severus roused himself from his sofa bed and tiptoed into his bedroom where Lucius and Narcissa were staying.

"Luc?" he hissed,

"What is it?" came whispered from the darkness,

"I believe now would be a good time to take Harry, before the castle wakes up"

A rustle followed and Lucius joined him at the door, "alright then".

Snape was dreading this, out of compassion, they had left Draco to grieve with Harry for that day, but today was the mass funeral and he knew it was time to say goodbye to the boy. He was going to miss the lad, his stoicism, his optimism, how he made Draco more tolerable to be around.

Once at the hospital wing, they crept in and froze. The bed, in which they had left Harry and Draco, was lying empty.

"What the…" Lucius trailed off. They both frantically glanced around the room, the only sign of either boy appeared to be their T-shirts. One abandoned on the bed, the other, crumpled, on the floor.

Snape grabbed Lucius's sleeve, "we have to find him, Draco could have done something stupid" thoughts of horrific sacrificial necromancy rituals flashed through his head, no one had ever succeeded but that didn't mean Draco wasn't distraught enough to try. Added to the fact, Draco had felt it necessary to undress them both, didn't bode well at all.

"Where could he have gone?" Lucius hissed

"You try the dungeons, I'll head upstairs" Severus instructed.

Snape ran like a mad man, casting locator spells, that tended to have little success in the castle, here and there. However Draco was not located, what he did discover disturbed him further. On the 6th floor landing, he came across the boy's discarded trainers. Half way up the staircase, there was a single sock and as he searched in an alcove on the seventh floor, most alarming of all, he discovered what, he was sure, were Draco's jeans.

After, probably, an hour of searching, a panther patronus ran up to him,

"Nothing down here, I am positive, I shall come up and help you" Lucius's voice informed him.

He sent back his raven, agreeing to meet on the seventh floor. Snape was becoming ever more concerned as to Draco's mental state. What possible reason could he have found for stripping in the middle of the castle at four in the morning?

When Lucius, made it up, he cast a questioning glance at the bundle of clothes in Snape's arms.

"This cannot be a good sign" they both agreed "we need to find him now".

As Snape spoke the words, Lucius froze and spun around. A door had appeared midway along the passage, that had most certainly not been there before. They shared a look, before Lucius moved forward and paused with his hand on the handle, it was then that they noticed the noises coming from behind the door.

The noises from within were bizarre at best and extremely disturbing at worst. There was definitely a rhythmic thumping, Snape's mind raced though the ancient spells that required the beat of a drum to summon spirits. Then there was the groaning, Draco must have been in pain, moaning away like that, he was making so much noise it was hard to believe it was only coming from him.

Lucius made to turn the handle but Snape reached a hand out to stop him.

"If there are evil spirits in there, we cannot release them into the rest of the castle, best to keep this contained until we know what we are dealing with" Lucius nodded in agreement and they both pressed their ears back to the door.

"Harry, Harry, Harry" was heard in Draco's voice, almost like a chant. Snape felt such sadness for his godson, calling out his dead lover's name like that.

"Bond with me" was heard next, clearly in Draco's voice. Who was he talking to?

There was a muffled reply, was someone else in there with him?

"It's the joining of souls for eternity" Draco seemed to be explaining something to someone, in a pretty rational, if breathless voice.

"Then yes, Draco yes" Was that Harry's voice? Snape grabbed the door handle himself this time, and the two men barged into the room.

Having expected to find all manner of gruesome magical rituals going on, inside, the sight that greeted them was even more of a shock.

There in the center of a plushly decorated room was a grand four-poster bed and on it were two teens, two, very much alive, teens. The men stood frozen in shock at the scene. Both boys were naked, naked and entwined in some of the more intimate ways one could imagine.

"Oh Harry, I thought I'd lost you"

Harry reached up to caress Draco's cheek then lent up to kiss him. Before that could lead anywhere Snape cleared his throat. Both boys jumped, startled, and Harry blushed beet red and tried to cover himself with the duvet. Draco just stared in challenge at his father.

After a tense pause Lucius said, "I suppose I better inform your mother she has a bonding ceremony to arrange" before, hastily, leaving.

Snape hovered for a while, before wizarding custom got the better of him, "I congratulate you on your bond, may your shared life, be filled with love and happiness".

"Er, thanks Sev" Harry said awkwardly,

"How much did you tell my father?" Draco asked.

"I explained the development of your relationship, not every nitty gritty detail of course, which I am sure he is thankful for after the display he got just then".

Harry choked, "err, h.. how much, of erm that did you see?" looking anywhere but at Snape,

"Enough for him to get the gist of the nature of your relationship"

"Oh no" Harry sighed

"What's wrong?". Draco wondered why Harry was upset, it wasn't any relative of his that had just seen them together.

"My future father in law, just saw me getting thoroughly ravished by his son"

Oh, when he put it like that, Draco thought he might have a point, "how does father feel about that, aspect of things?"

"About seeing the two of you in bed together? At a guess, I'd say, none too pleased" Snape answered bemused.

"No, I mean about, the whole me being gay?"

"I thought we decided you were bi?" Harry interrupted

"Not the time Harry" Draco said as he returned to questioning his godfather.

"He has taken the news about as well as any pure-blooded man that is head of a famous wizarding family, and has only the one heir, can be expected to"

"Oh crap" Draco answered.


	21. Chapter 21

On the Eve of the bonding ceremony. Ron had arranged a pub crawl in London for Draco, inviting most of the members of the DA. Hermione had arranged for dinner and drinks at Fortesque's with the DA members who had turned down Ron, namely the girls. Harry didn't mind. A pub crawl sounded like a nightmare.

Draco dropped Harry off at the restaurant with a final kiss before heading off to the leaky cauldron. Harry had a great evening despite being forced to ride around on a child's safety broom all night, which flew so low to the ground, his knees ended up by his ears.

Harry was still tucked up in bed at the Weasley's at a very reasonable hour. Draco, on the other hand, didn't stumble back to the manor on Snape's shoulder, until well into the early morning, having gotten roaring drunk and making up an embarrassing song about how Harry loved riding his 'broom stick' for most of Diagon Alley to hear.

The ceremony was beautiful, the Malfoys hosted in their apple orchard, where an arbour was set up under the boughs and the guest's seats on the lawn.

Lucius walked Draco down to the arbour first and then Snape walked with Harry, both in pale grey dress robes Harry's embroidered with gold and Draco's in silver.

The new, Headmistress McGonagall officiated and after their binding vows were proclaimed to the universe their rings were conjured by a combination of everyone in attendance's magic and molded themselves around the men's ring fingers.

There was food and dancing afterwards and the Hogwarts's ghosts band played for them. As the day waned, the sunset on the garden and Harry could contemplate how much had changed since last year. He missed Sirius terribly, Remus assured him he would have been so proud of Harry on his wedding day, but that wasn't the same as having him there.

As people began to say their goodbyes a jet of red flashed through the air. Fawkes arrived and landed on Harry's shoulder trilling in phoenix song.

McGonagall chuckled, "I'd wondered where'd you got to dear creature", Fawkes crooned at the attention but remained on Harry.

"Think Hedwig's got competition now" Hermione laughed,

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Fawkes is announcing you're his new master Harry!" she exclaimed and Harry beamed, having a part of his old mentor nearby, was the best wedding present he could have asked for.

* * *

A few years later, Snape and Hermione are having drinks at the Leaky Cauldron...

"You know what, Severus, Harry has actually never told us"

"Told you what?" a slightly tipsy Snape drawled to Hermione.

"How Draco proposed, as soon as Ron proposed to me, I was ready to turn the whole thing into a short story for the Daily Prophet and yet, nothing. Draco won't let on, either"

Snape laughed and laughed and laughed, knowing exactly why they had not shared that particular story.

"What's so funny? Oh! You know don't you, oh, please Severus, you have to tell" she implored.

Well they'd never explicitly told him not to, Snape thought... "It was in the room of requirement"

"oooooh" Hermione squealed "I bet it was so romantic" Snape smirked "how did he build up to it? did he woo Harry with roses? or chocolates? or I know, with fruit!"

Snape smiled again, Harry would probably have liked that.

"Where did he hide the ring? What did it look like? or no, it wasn't a ring at all, it was a locket containing a picture of them, at the age they met. Oh no that wouldn't be pleasant, at the age they fell in love?" Hermione sighed, as if she'd decided this is exactly how it had happened.

If only she knew, Snape thought, then grinned, she will soon.

"What was it Severus? come on, you're killing me here"

"Very well, Mrs Weasley, it was in the room of requirement, decorated in luxurious elegance, there was a roaring fire in the hearth" Hermione sighed again, "in the center of the room, Draco had asked for an extravagant four poster bed to be placed"

"So romantic" Hermione gushed,

"And on that bed, were two randy teenagers, going at it like rabbits" Hermione's face began to fall "in the throes of passion Draco exclaimed, 'Bond with me' and Mr Potter, rather out of breath, gasped 'yes'".

"Oh" Hermione said, her bubble well and truly burst "I can see why they don't tell anybody, not even a flipping glass of fizzy pumpkin juice" she huffed, "why'd they tell you about that, but nobody else?"

"They didn't, I was an unfortunate witness to the end of the proceedings"

"Oh good god, it just gets better" Hermione gave him a sympathetic look "at least he said yes, can you imagine if Harry had jumped up and done a runner?" she cheered up again.

"I imagine, Lucius could have hexed him into agreement"

"Lucius was there as well? What sort of perverted kind of proposal was this? Is this a pure-blood thing?" Hermione asked looking rather disgusted.

Snape huffed a laugh "muggle born prejudice. No of course it's not a tradition to copulate in front of your father and godfather in order to secure yourself a bond mate, what do you think we are? Veelas!"

Later that night when Hermione got home to her husband, she couldn't help herself, "guess what story Severus told me"

Ron knew instantly. There was only one thing his wife would get this excited about "The proposal!"

"Got it in one, but you have to swear not to tell anyone".

Of course by the next afternoon, all of the Weasley's knew, everyone at the Auror office, the staff at Hogwarts and all of Harry and Draco's team mates in the Appleby Arrows.

Anyone that knew the couple well, wasn't exactly surprised, many of them having been witness to the pair in compromising positions, themselves.

The news of Snape's betrayal took till the next evening to reach the boys themselves.

"And to think" Harry said "the guy used to be a respectable double agent, now he crumbles under interrogation by Hermione"

"Oh how the mighty have fallen" Draco joked, plotting how best to get their revenge on his godfather.


End file.
